
Glass I:,,- V ^ 

Book, € t? "/ 
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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



BY THE SAME AUTHOR 

What the Bible Teaches 

The Revelation Explained 

Evolution of Christianity 

Missionary Journeys Through 

Bible Lands 



The Last Reformation 



O firm' 



By F. G. Smith 



GOSPEL TRUMPET COMPANY 
Anderson, Indiana, U.S.A. 



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Copyright, 1919, 

by 

Gospel Trumpet Company 



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©CLA529 990 






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PREFACE 

God's true people everywhere are looking for 
light on the church question. A deep undercur- 
rent of dissatisfaction with the present order of 
things exists in the ecclesiastical world. The his- 
toric creeds are stationary and conservative, but 
religious thought can not always be bound nor its 
progress permanently hindered. Honest Chris- 
tian men and women will think, and they are now 
thinking in the terms of a universal Christianity. 
If I am able to discern the signs of the times, the 
rising tide of Christian love and fellowship is about 
to overflow the lines of sect and bring together 
in one common hope and in one common brother- 
hood all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in 
sincerity. 

What will constitute the leading characteristics 
of the church of the future! This is the burning 
question. Spiritual-minded men are conscious 
that things can not long continue as they now are, 
but what and where is the remedy? 

After this book was completed and in the hands 
of the printers, I received a copy of ' ' The Church 
and its Organization, ' ' by Walter Lowrie, and was 
surprized to find in it much truth that I had al- 
ready received through independent investiga- 
tion and embodied in my manuscript. I refer par- 
ticularly to the charismatic organization and 



vi Preface 

government of the church. It is gratifying to 
know that other minds are being led to the same 
conclusions regarding a subject of such vital im- 
portance to the future of Christianity. 

In writing the present work I have endeavored 
to present the Scriptural solution of this great 
problem, a solution which takes into account, and 
gives due respect to, historic Christianity, the 
prophecies respecting the church and its destiny, 
and the fundamental characteristics of our holy 
religion as it emanated from the divine Founder. 

If this work can be of service in pointing out 
Christ's plan and purpose to ' ' gather together in 
one the children of Grod which are scattered 
abroad,' ' and also be instrumental in helping to 
accomplish this grand Christian ideal, I shall feel 
abundantly repaid. F. GL Smith. 

Anderson, Indiana, May 6, 1919. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Introduction— "The Time of Reformation" 9 

Part I — The Church in Apostolic Days 

CHAPTER 

I The Church Defined „.... 19 

IE 'The Universal Church - 21 

III The Local Church _ - _ 3a 

IV The Organization and Government of the 

Church _ _ 41 

Part II— The Church in History 

V Corruption of Evangelical Faith 73 

VI Rise of Ecclesiasticism 87 

VII The Reformation . _101 

VIII Modern Sects _ Ill 

IX The Church of the Future 125 

Part III — The Church in Prophecy 

X Interpretation of Prophetic Symbols 141 

XI The Apostolic Period __ 149 

XII The Medieval Period 169 

XIII Era of Modern Sects 209 

XIV The Last Reformation - 223 



VI 1 



INTRODUCTION 

"THE TIME OF KEFOKMATION ' ' 

In ecclesiastical history the term Reformation 
has been applied specifically to the important re- 
ligions movement of the sixteenth centnry which 
resulted in the formation of the various Protes- 
tant churches of that period. Since the sixteenth 
century there have been other religious reforma- 
tions, some of considerable importance and in- 
fluence. 

There is a present reformation specially dis- 
tinguished from all those that have gone before. 
a present It is resulting from the particular 

reformation operation of the Spirit of God as 

predicted in the Word of God, and its influences 
are being felt in varying degrees throughout all 
Christendom. Many Christians are already stirred 
to action by the conscious knowledge of Christ's 
message for these times, while multiplied thou- 
sands of others who love the Lord Jesus are ex- 
periencing within their own hearts the awaken- 
ing of new aspirations and impulses, the real 
meaning of which they do not as yet understand, 
but which are, through the leadership of the Holy 
Spirit, unconsciously fitting them for their true 
place in this great world-wide movement which is 
destined to exceed in importance and influence all 

9 



10 The Last Reformation 

other religious reformations since the days of 
primitive Christianity. 

Since, as we shall show, the present reforma- 
tion is the work of the Spirit affecting all true 
Christians, drawing them together for the realiza- 
tion of a grand Scriptural ideal, it is evident that 
no particular band of people enjoy its exclusive 
monopoly. May the same Holy Spirit illuminate 
our hearts and minds in the contemplation of the 
truths of the divine Word. 

The term reformation signifies "the act of re- 
forming or the state of being reformed; change 
from worse to better; correction or amendment 
of life, manners, or of anything vicious or cor- 
rupt. ' ' In its application to the religion of Christ, 
reformation means the correction of abuses and 
corrupt practises that have become associated with 
the Christian system; the elimination of all un- 
worthy, foreign elements. In other Words, it im- 
plies restoration, a return to the practises and 
ideals of primitive Christianity. 

If we inquire concerning the limits of true re- 
formatory work, we see at once that, if there is to 
what the final be a ^1 reformation, such a 
reformation movement must restore in its 

must include fundamental aspects apostolic 

Christianity— its doctrines, its ordinances, its per- 
sonal regenerating and sanctifying experiences, 
its spiritual life, its holiness, its power, its purity, 
its gifts of the Spirit, its unity of believers, and 



Introduction 11 

its fruits. This assumes, of course, that during 
the centuries there has been a departure from this 
standard. 

No reformation since apostolic times has cov- 
ered all this ground. All the reformations taken 
The church itself together fall far short of this 
the real object standard. They have been ref- 
of reformation orma £i ns only in part, each 
movement simply placing special emphasis on par- 
ticular doctrines, or ordinances, or personal expe- 
riences. Hence the need of further reformation. 
The present movement embraces all the truth con- 
tained in all the previous reformations of Protes- 
tantism. But it does not stop there. It stands 
committed to all the truth of the Word of God. It 
goes straight to the heart of the reformation sub- 
ject and reveals the pure, holy, universal church 
of the apostolic times as made up of all those who 
were regenerated, uniting them all IN CUEIST; 
in the "church of the living God," which church 
was "the pillar and ground of the truth" (1 Tim. 
3:15); the church that was graced with the gifts 
of the Spirit and filled with holy power. 

The true apostolic church has been largely lost 
to view since the early Christian centuries, when 
a general apostasy dimmed the light of truth and 
plunged the world into the darkness of papal night. 
In modern times the term "church" as applied to 
a general body of religious worshipers is usually 
employed in a restricted sense, specifying some 



12 The Last Reformation 

particular organization, as the hierarchy of Rome 
or the aggregation of local congregations consti- 
tuting a Protestant sect. By a natural reaction 
from the Romish extreme, wherein the church and 
church relationship are exalted above the personal 
relationship of the individual with his God, many 
teachers now incline to an opposite extreme, which 
makes little of the church as an institution, sub- 
stituting therefor a sort of "loyalty to Christ," 
individualism, subversive of true New Testament 
standards. 

The church is not to be exalted above the Christ, 
nor is it a substitute for the Christ; but in the 
The true church % nt of New Testament teaching 
scripturaUy we must regard the true church as 

important ^ e instrument— the divinely ap- 

pointed instrument used by the Holy Spirit in 
carrying forward the work of Christ on earth. 
Jesus himself said, "Upon this rock I will build 
my church ; and the gates of hell shall not prevail 
against it" (Matt. 16:18). At a later time we 
read, "And the Lord added to the church daily 
such as should be saved" (Acts 2: 47). 

If Paul were living today, he also might despise 
the "church" idea in its narrow sectarian sense. 
But from the apostle's words, it is very evident 
that he regarded the church as it existed in his 
day as an institution crowned with glory and 
honor, the concrete expression of Christ and his 
truth. "God hath set some IN THE CHURCH, 



Introduction 13 

first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teach- 
ers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, 
helps, governments, diversities of tongues" 
(1 Cor. 12:28). "And he gave some, apostles; 
and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and 
some, pastors and teachers ; for the perfecting of 
the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the 
edifying of the body of Christ; till we all come in 
the unity of the faith . . . that we . . . may 
groiv up into him in all things, which is the head, 
[of the body, the church, Col. 1: 18] even Christ' ' 
(Eph. 4:11-15). 

Inasmuch as God set in the church apostles, 
prophets, evangelists, gifts of miracles, of heal- 
Tne church as a ings, etc., we must regard the 
divino institution church as originally instituted as 
being more than a mere aggregate of individuals 
associating themselves together for particular 
purposes. We must recognize the divine element. 
This company was the host of redeemed ones 
whom Christ had saved, in whom he dwelt, and 
through whom he revealed God and accomplished 
his work on earth. It was his body— the organism 
to which he gave spiritual life and through which 
he manifested the fulness of his power and glory. 

Any reformation that has not for its object the 
full restoration of the New Testament church, can 
not be a complete reformation, but must be suc- 
ceeded by another. In this respect the church sub- 
ject is fundamental and all-inclusive. To em- 



14 The Last Reformation 

phasize a mere "personal-union-with-Christ" the- 
ory to the disparagement of the divine ekMesia, is 
Church relationship to evade the real issue. Jesus de- 
vs. individualism c lared, < ' I will build my church, ' ' 
and that church was an objective reality, which 
was not intended to be concealed under high- 
sounding theological verbiage nor dissipated in 
glittering generalities. It is true that Christ him- 
self must be presented as the ground of our hope 
and salvation and as the object of our personal 
faith, love, and devotion; as "the way, the truth, 
and the life"; but we must not forget that there 
is also a revelation of the way, the truth, and the 
life in the church of Christ. The apostles preached 
Christ as the divine "way"; but when men be- 
lieved on him, he straightway "set the members 
every one of them in the body"— the church 
(1 Cor. 12:18). "And the Lord added to the 
church daily such as should be saved" (Acts 
2:47). They preached Christ as the personifica- 
tion of "truth." But they also taught that the 
gospel was a special "treasure" committed to the 
church for dispensing to the nations. Paul said 
that God hath "committed unto us the word of 
reconciliation" (2 Cor. 5:19). Therefore he 
could represent the church of God "as the pillar 
and ground of the truth. ' ' They preached him as 
"life," but he was also the life of the collective 
body of believers as well as of individuals. He 
dwelt in his church. He was its life, and through 



Introduction 15 

it lie manifested himself in the only form in which, 
since the incarnation, he can be fully exhibited to 
men. 

The fact that Komanism has stressed the 
" church' ' idea, parading before the world as the 
Avoiding church an organic body devoid of 

extremes ^^ spiritual life, a mere corpse, 

is no reason justifying a view which, ignoring the 
practical church relationship taught in the New 
Testament, talks glibly of an ethereal, intangible, 
ghostly something which, without a body, lacks 
all practical contact with men. The Bible standard 
is the proper union of soul and body. It is certain 
that, as in apostolic days, such union is neces- 
sary to the proper exhibition of the divine life and 
absolutely essential to the full accomplishment of 
the divine purposes in Christ's great redemptive 
plan. 

Christ, the life of his spiritual body, and the 
life-giver, remains the same in all ages. Hence 
the church body is the part that has been disrupted 
and corrupted by apostasy and sectarianism, and 
is therefore the sphere of reformatory effort. 
And while reformation pertains to historical 
Christianity, it implies, as we have already shown, 
a return to the primitive standard. Therefore, 
before proceeding to describe particularly the 
present reformation, we must give attention to the 
constitution of the apostolic church, the divine 
original. 



PART I 
The Church in Apostolic Days 



The Last Reformation 

CHAPTER I 

THE CHUECH DEFINED 

The word "church" as used in the New Testa- 
ment is, in most cases, derived from the Greek 
The term word ekklesia. The component 

"church" parts of this word literally mean 

to summon or call together in public convocation. 
It was, therefore, used to designate any popular 
assembly which met for the transaction of public 
business. As an example of the secular use of the 
term, see Acts 19 : 32, 39. This particular applica- 
tion of the word, however, does not here concern 
us. 

Since the word ekklesia conveys the idea of an 
assembly of "called ones," it expresses beauti- 
fully the Christian's call to churchly association. 
The divine call of believers is frequently expressed 
in the New Testament: they are " called with an 
holy calling' ' (2 Tim. 1:9); "called in one body" 
(Col. 3 : 15) ; "called unto his kingdom and glory" 
(1 Thess. 2:12) ; or, as Peter expresses it, "Ye 
are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an 
holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should 
show forth the praises of him who hath called you 
out of darkness into his marvelous light" (1 Pet. 
2:9). While these texts and many others describe 

19 



20 The Church in Apostolic Days 

the exalted rights and privileges accorded the 
' ' called ones, ' ' there is distinctly implied the idea 
of their organic association, and it was this associa- 
tion that constituted them the Christian church. 

"The church of God, which he hath purchased 
with his own blood" (Acts 20:28), is clearly set 
its two Chris- forth in the New Testament. And 

tian phases £[ ie term "church" in its relig- 

ious usage is given two significations. In its 
largest and primary signification, the church of 
God is the entire body of regenerated persons in 
all times and places, and is in this respect identical 
with the spiritual kingdom of God, the divine fam- 
ily. In a secondary sense, church designates an 
individual assembly in which the universal church 
takes local and temporary form and in which the 
idea of the general church is concretely exhibited. 

Besides these two significations of the Chris- 
tian term ' ' church, ' ' there are, properly speaking, 
no other in the New Testament. It is true that 
ekklesia is sometimes used as a collective term to 
denote the body of local churches existing in a 
given region, but there is no evidence that these 
churches were bound together in groups by any 
outward organization which separated or distin- 
guished them from other congregations of the gen- 
eral church. Therefore this use of the term 
"church" can not be regarded as adding any new 
sense to those of the general church and the local 
church already referred to. 



CHAPTER II 

THE UNIVEESAL CHUKCH 

Matt. 16 : 18 introduces in the gospel history the 
subject of the church. Jesus said, "I will build 
my church ; and the gates of hell shall not prevail 
against it." This text implies that the church as 
an institution was not yet founded, and it also 
clearly implies that Christ himself was to be the 
founder and builder of his church. 

Jesus had already preached that the kingdom of 
heaven was at hand, and when he sent forth his 
twelve apostles he commanded them to preach and 
say, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand." Jesus 
himself taught the doctrines of the kingdom, but 
in the words of our text there is implied deeper 
ideas of the kingdom of God yet to be revealed in 
all their fulness of meaning. 

We should divest our minds, temporarily at 
least, of preconceived ideas of formal church or- 
The body ganization and earnestly seek to 

of Christ understand the real signification 

of that church of which Christ was himself per- 
sonally the founder. A few texts make this point 
clear: "And hath put all things under his 
[Christ's] feet, and given him to be the head over 
all things to the church, which is Ms body, the ful- 
ness of him that filleth all in all" (Eph. 1: 22, 23). 
The church, then, is the body of Christ. Of this 

21 



22 The Church in Apostolic Days 

body Jesus himself is the head. "And he is the 
head of the body, the church . . . that in all 
things he might have the preeminence ' ' (Col. 
1:18). "For his body's sake, which is the 
church" (verse 24). Christ is head of but one 
body. ' ' There is one body ' ' ( Eph. 4:4). In these 
texts the body and the church are used inter- 
changeably, referring to one and the same thing. 
The body of which Christ is the head is the church 
that he built, "the church of God, which he hath 
purchased with his own blood" (Acts 20: 28). 

It is therefore to Calvary that we must look for 
the specific act by virtue of which Christ person- 
The atonement all y became the founder of his 
its procuring church. There it was ' l purchased 

cause with his own blood." There we 

find the application of those sublime words of the 
Savior, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, 
will draw all men UNTO ME ' ' (John 12 : 32) . By 
virtue of that act, God "put all things under his 
feet, and gave him to be the head over all things 
to the church." Yea, by virtue of that act, "God 
also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name 
which is above every name: that at the name of 
Jesus every knee should bow, . . . and that every 
tongue should confess" (Phil. 2:9-11). 

The church, then, proceeds from Calvary: Pen- 
tecost was but its initial manifestation to men and 
its dedication for service. Of this we shall have 
more to say hereafter. 



The Universal Church 23 

Since through his death Christ proposed to 
draw all men nnto him, it is evident that all the 
Composed of members of Christ are therefore 

true Christians members of his body, the chnrch. 
To this agrees the words of the apostle Paul, "For 
as we have many members in one body, and all 
members have not the same office: so we [true 
Christians], being many, are one body in Christ, 
and every one members one of another" (Rom. 
12: 4, 5). "Now hath God set the members every 
one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him" 
(1 Cor. 12:18). 

Becoming a member of the spiritual body of 
Christ is necessarily a spiritual operation. Men 
Mode of may admit members to a formal 

admission church relationship, but only the 

Spirit of God can make us members of Christ. 
"For by one Spirit are we all baptized [or in- 
ducted] into one body, whether we be Jews or 
Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have 
been all made to drink into one Spirit" (1 Cor. 
12: 13). This text does not refer to literal water- 
baptism, but to the work of the ' ' Spirit, ' ' by whom 
we are inducted into Christ. "God hath set the 
members every one of them in the body" (verse 
18). And since this is the work of the Spirit, it 
is evident that none but the saved can possibly 
find admittance into the spiritual body of Christ. 
Under a different figure Jesus conveys the same 
truth. ' ' I am the door : by me if any man enter in, 



24 The Church in Apostolic Days 

he shall be saved" (John 10: 9). "And the Lord 
added to them day by day those that were being 
saved" (Acts 2:47, R. V.). Salvation, then, is 
the condition of membership. 

The members of Christ are members of God's 
family. How do we become members of the divine 
Family family? "Except a man be born 

relationship again, he can not see the kingdom 

of God ' ' (John 3:3). "As many as received him, 
to them gave he power to become the sons of God 
. . . which were born . . . of God" (John 1: 12, 
13). "Beloved, now are we the sons of God" 
(1 John 3:2). Since this family, or church, is 
composed of the saved, or those who are born 
again, and excludes all the unsaved, we can under- 
stand Paul's reference to "a glorious church, not 
having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing," but 
"holy and without blemish" (Eph. 5: 27). 

We have spoken of the union of all believers 
with Christ when he draws them unto himself and 
becomes their spiritual life. But this unity of all 
believers with Christ is a spiritual relationship 
and experience not to be confused with external 
things. The Bible speaks of Christians as being 
"in Christ." What does this mean? It certainly 
means to be "born again," for without that ex- 
perience we "can not see the kingdom of God" 
(John 3:3). " Therefore if any man be in Christ, 
HE IS A NEW CREATURE: old things are 
passed away ; behold, all things are become new ' ' 



The Universal Church 25 

(2 Cor. 5:17). "Whosoever abideth in him sin- 
neth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, 
neither known him'' (1 John 3:6). 

But our union with Christ, by which we become 
members of the divine family, necessarily fixes our 
Unity of relationship with all those who 

believers are mem bers of Christ. If, 

through salvation, we are brought into a sacred 
unity with Christ, we are by the same act brought 
into essential unity and fellowship with the mem- 
bers of Christ. This the Word distinctly affirms : 
"We, being many, are one body in Christ, and 
every one members one of another" (Rom. 12: 
4, 5). "There should be no schism in the body; 
but the members should have the same care one 
for another" (1 Cor. 12 : 25). While this last text 
relates literally to the physical body, the apostle 
applies it in an illustrative way to the spiritual 
body. ' ' Now ye are the body of Christ, and mem- 
bers in particular" (verse 27). 

Harmony in a normal physical body is not ef- 
fected by external means, but is organic. The 
unity and members may be many and di- 

uniformity verse, but they are all necessary 

and have their respective places and work. So 
also with the body of Christ. Union with Christ is 
not dependent upon absolute uniformity except in 
the one thing— the fundamental experience by 
which we are made members of Christ. In the 
apostolic period the children of God who loved 



26 The Church in Apostolic Days 

our Lord and were known of him were not all of 
one age or size or nationality. They had not all 
enjoyed the same social advantages, nor had they 
had the same intellectual attainments. The act of 
receiving Christ and his salvation did not perfect 
their knowledge ; therefore they had to be patiently 
taught in order to bring them into the " unity of 
the faith. " And for this purpose divinely chosen 
instructors were appointed, who must themselves 
" study' ' and give careful attention to "doctrine" 
(Eph. 4: 11-14; 1 Tim. 3: 13-16). But the gospel 
penetrates beneath the surface; it goes straight 
to the heart and reaches fundamental things. 
i c There is neither Jew nor Greek ; there is neither 
bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: 
for ye are all one IN CHRIST JESUS" (Gal. 
3:28). 

The unity of believers with Christ is, therefore, 
based on divine relationship, and this is the funda- 
mental basis of the true relationship of believers 
with each other. In order to maintain spiritual 
relationship with Christ and his people, the Chris- 
tian must have an obedient heart and ' ' walk in the 
light of the Lord" ; but we should always be ready 
to extend our fellowship to those whom Christ 
really receives and approves. 

How prone men have ever been to ignore this 
simple, divine standard and set up arbitrary rules 
of their own by which to measure others! This 
wrong tendency combined with the carnal ambi- 



The Universal Church 27 

tions of men who love to parade their own unscrip- 
tural ideas before the world and gain adherents 
has been the real cause of the disunion of Chris- 
tians. But the Bible standard is what we are now 
considering. It teaches that the saved people were 
f ! members one of another ' ' as well as members of 
Christ; that they were, in fact, "all one in Christ 
Jesus." 

According to the New Testament standard, unity 
of believers is more than an invisible, intangible, 
unity a prac- spiritual fellowship. They are 

ticai reality : < members one of another ' ' as well 

as members of Christ. That unity was designed 
to be visible and to form a convincing sign to the 
world of the mighty power of Christ. This stands 
out prominently in that notable prayer of our Lord 
recorded in John 17, which was uttered on the 
most solemn night of his earthly life. First he 
prayed for his immediate disciples, then for all 
believers, in these words: "Neither pray I for 
these [twelve] alone, but for them also which shall 
believe on me through their word ; THAT THEY 
ALL MAY BE ONE,; as thou, Father, art in me, 
and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: 
THAT THE, WORLD MAY BELIEVE that thou 
hast sent me" (verses 20, 21). 

Such unity is a real standard. It will convince 
the world. The practical force of this last scrip- 
ture can not be lessened by reference to those other 
words of Jesus, ' i By this shall all men know that 



28 The Church in Apostolic Days 

ye are my disciples, if ye have love one for an- 
other" (John 13: 35), for Jesus taught the insep- 
arable nature of love and unity. Love, as an in- 
ward affection, produces deeds and results, and is 
measured thereby. Jesus said, "If a man love 
me, he will keep my words; and my Father will 
love him, and we will come unto him, and make our 
abode with him" (John 14: 23). And just as love 
to God invariably produces union with God, so 
also true love to man will result in unity. "My 
little children, let us not love in word, neither in 
tongue; but in deed and in trutW (1 John 3: 18). 
Carnal divisions can not exist where true love 
reigns. 

For this visible unity Christ prayed— "That 
they all may be one, . . . that the world may be- 
christ died lieve." More than this, he died 

for unity fa&t unity might be effected. John 

11: 52 clearly shows that one purpose of Christ's 
death was that "he should gather together in one 
the children of God that were scattered abroad.' ' 
Therefore unity of believers is a sacred truth rest- 
ing on the solid basis of the atonement. That this 
unity is more than that general union resulting 
from the personal attachment of separate individ- 
uals to Christ as a common center, is proved by the 
fact that it is designed to gather together in one 
the scattered children of God. Jesus himself said, 
"Other sheep I have [Gentiles], which are not of 
this [Jewish] fold: them also I must bring, and 



The Universal Church 29 

they shall hear my voice ; and THERE SHALL 
BE ONE FOLD [flock] AND ONE SHEP- 
HERD" (John 10: 16). 

Broadly speaking, there were at that time but 
two classified divisions of men— Jews and Gen- 
Jew and Gen- tiles. Jesus predicted that his 

tile united sheep from both sections should 

be brought together into one flock. In the second 
chapter of Bphesians, Paul tells us how this was 
accomplished. Although "in times past" the Gen- 
tiles were ' ' strangers from, the covenants of prom- 
ise, having no hope and without God in the 
world," in Christ they were "made nigh by the 
blood." "For he is our peace, who hath made 
both [Jews and Gentiles] ONE, and hath broken 
down the middle wall of partition between us . . . 
that he might reconcile both unto God in one body 
by the cross" (verses 12-16). Since this glorious 
reunion through Christ, the Gentiles "are no more 
strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with 
the saints, and of the household of God." They 
also "are built upon the foundation of the apostles 
and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief 
corner-stone ... in whom ye also are builded 
together for an habitation of God through the 
Spirit" (verses 19-22). 

On account of the high standard of unity set 
forth in his epistles, Paul has been branded an 
idealist. But what shall we say of Christ who 
prayed for such visible unity and died for it? An 



30 The Church in Apostolic Days 

idealist is one who forms picturesque fancies, one 
given to romantic expectations impossible of ac- 
complishment. The idealist usually has but few 
practical results. But Paul accomplished things. 
He broke away from his Jewish prejudices, which 
brought down upon his head the wrath of his fel- 
lows. He went into the synagogs of the Jews and 
brought out those who were willing to become dis- 
ciples of Jesus. To build up the work of the Lord 
he labored night and day with tears ; he laid broad 
and deep the very foundations of the Christian 
faith in heathen lands. Within a very few years 
he established Christian churches in four prov- 
inces of the Eoman Empire— churches in which 
Jew and Gentile met together in common fellow- 
ship, in one body. If this is idealism, Lord, give 
us many more such idealists. 

But the unity described by Paul in the epistles 
which he wrote late in life is not given as a mere 
The burden of ideal standard for the future to- 
Paurs ministry ward which men should strive. It 
is given as the record of a historic fact, the accom- 
plishment of which lay at the very foundation of 
Paul's call to the ministry. 

In the second chapter of Ephesians, already 
quoted, Paul declares that both Jews and Gen- 
tiles were reconciled to God in one body by the 
cross. In the next chapter he shows his part in 
the accomplishment of that end. First, he was 
called of God as the apostle of the Gentiles; then 



The Universal Church 31 

by revelation was made known nnto him ' ' the mys- 
tery of Christ which in other ages was not made 
known unto the sons of men . . . that the Gen- 
tiles should be fellow heirs, and OF THE SAME 
BODY, and partakers of his promise in Christ by 
the gospel" (Eph. 3:4-6). The promise referred 
to was doubtless the " promise of the Father," the 
gift of the Holy Ghost. "That the blessing of 
Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Je- 
sus Christ; that we might receive the promise of 
the Spirit through faith" (Gal. 3: 14) /"For this 
cause," says Paul, "I was made a minister . . . 
that I should preach among the Gentiles the un- 
searchable riches of Christ; and to make all men 
see what is the fellowship of the mystery ... to 
the intent that now unto the principalities and 
powers in heavenly places might be known BY 
THE CHUKCH the manifold wisdom of God" 
(Eph. 3:1-10). 

Paul was given a tremendous task— "TO 
MAKE ALL MEN SEE" that mystery. This task 
Was divinely required from God ' i the effectual 

attested working of his power" (verse 7). 

And in another place he also shows that this power 
was not lacking: "For I will not dare to speak 
of any of those things which Christ hath not 
wrought by me, to make the Gentiles obedient, by 
word and deed, through mighty signs and won- 
ders, by the power of the Spirit of God" (Bom. 
15:18, 19). 



32 The Church in Apostolic Days 

Paul, then, was divinely commissioned "to make 
all men see" the mystery of this union of all 
classes of men "in one body by the cross' ' (Eph. 
2: 16), all in "the SAME body, and partakers of 
his promise in Christ by the gospel' ' (Eph. 3:6). 
And when Paul's career was finished, the same 
mystery was given over to others that it might be 
"known BY THE! CHURCH" (verse 10), "the 
church, which is his body" (Eph. 1: 22, 23). The 
ministry, then, should have held the ground al- 
ready attained, the actual union of all the saved 
in one body, and have labored earnestly "to make 
all men see" that that body only is the church. 



CHAPTEK III 
THE LOCAL CHUECH 

The words of Christ, "I will build my church; 
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" 
(Matt. 16: 18), convey a deeper meaning than the 
simple preaching of the kingdom. As we have 
already shown, the one specific personal act by 
virtue of which Christ became the founder of the 
church wa$ his atonement on Calvary, where the 
church was "purchased with his own blood" 
(Acts 20 : 28) . The church, then, as an institution, 
resulted from the atonement. Paul, describing 
the union of Jews and Gentiles in one body, the 
church, declares that it was effected ' ' by the cross ' ' 
(Eph. 2:16). 

There was power in redemption. It brought 
into the lives of believers forces that could not 
but unite them in social compact. It threw them 
together in living sympathy and united their hearts 
firmly in the strong bonds of brotherly love. Their 
outward organic union as a church was the natural 
and inevitable result of this inward life and love. 

By the impartation of spiritual life to believers 
and by the agency of the Holy Spirit operating in 
the apostles as special agents appointed to do his 
work, Christ built his church on earth. There was 
a building of the church, then, which pertained 
specifically to its local and visible development 

33 



34 The Church in Apostolic Days 

among men. The expression "Z will build" in- 
dicates the transcendent element, the divine ele- 
Locai church ment, in church organization, 

defined rphis being true, it follows that the 

local church was not merely an aggregate of in- 
dividuals accidently gathered together, but was 
the local, concrete embodiment of the spiritual 
body of Christ; the unified company of regener- 
ated persons who, as a body, were dedicated to 
Christ, acknowledged of Christ, and used by 
Christ through the Holy Spirit for the accom- 
plishment of his work. Jerusalem furnishes the 
first example, dating from Pentecost (Acts 2). 

That this is, generally speaking, the Scriptural 
definition of a local church of God, is further 
Particular example: shown by another particular ex- 
Corinth ample. Paul addressed two of his 

epistles "to the church of God which is at Cor- 
inth" (1 Cor. 1:2; 2 Cor. 1:1). As individuals 
they are called ' ' saints ■ ' and ' ' brethren, ' ' but col- 
lectively as a church they are called "the church 
of God" and referred to as "God's building" 
(1 Cor. 3:9). And the apostle says to them, 
"Know ye not that ye are a temple of God, and 
that the Spirit of God dwelleth in youV (verse 16, 
R. V.) . They had been inducted by the Spirit into 
the "one body/' and they were filled with the 
gifts of the Spirit— wisdom, knowledge, faith, 
healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment, and 
tongues (chap. 12). In fact, the apostle said, "Ye 



The Local Church 35 

come behind in no gift ' ' (chap. 1:7). And he said 
particularly, "Ye are the body of Christ" (chap. 
12:27). 

A true local church, then, was the concrete em- 
bodiment of the spiritual body of Christ in a given 
place. It was the body of Christ because it was 
made up of the people of God, manifested the 
power of God, was the repository of the truth of 
God, was filled with the gifts of the Spirit of God, 
and was actually used by the Spirit in performing 
the works of God. Such characteristics made it 
"the church of God." 

Membership in the general body of Christ was 
conditioned solely on the new birth, or salvation. 
Local Since the individual church was 

membership ^he i oca j embodiment of the gen- 

eral church, none but the saved could properly be- 
come members thereof, and all who were truly 
saved (in the same locality) belonged to it by 
divine right. At this point, however, the human 
element in the constitution of the local church be- 
came manifest. We have pointed out the divine 
element in the true church— the element that par- 
ticularly distinguished it as the church of God, 
but the bringing together of many individuals in 
one assembly involved also a social element and 
required the principle of recognition. There is, 
however, no evidence that such recognition was 
given by a formal, official act of the church in its 
corporate capacity. And since salvation is of the 



36 The Church in Apostolic Days 

heart, it was possible for human recognition to 
temporarily miss its true purpose. Thus, in the 
church at Jerusalem we find recognized as a con- 
stituent part of the assembly two false members- 
Ananias and Sapphira. On the other hand, when 
the converted Saul "was come to Jerusalem, he 
essayed to join himself to the disciples: but they 
were all afraid of him, and believed not that fye 
was a disciple" (Acts 9: 26). The church at Cor- 
inth, already referred to, had some false mem- 
bers at the time the Pauline epistles were writ- 
ten. The church at Samaria also tolerated for a 
time one whose "heart was not right in the sight 
of God" (Acts 8). 

Since the local church was designed to exhibit 
concretely the spiritual body of Christ, none but 
a holy saved persons could properly 

churcl1 hold membership therein; there- 

fore the local church when in its normal condition 
was free from sin and sinners. The physical body, 
which Paul uses to illustrate the spiritual body, is 
normal only when every member possesses the life 
of the body and functions properly. So also was 
the body of Christ. It was not God's will that 
there should be (as recognized members) "sinners 
in the congregation of the righteous" (Psa. 1:5). 
It was his will to purge Jerusalem "by the spirit 
of judgment and by the spirit of burning" until 
"he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in 
Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one 



Tlie Local Church 37 

that is written among the living in Jerusalem " 
(Isa. 4:3, 4). 

The local congregation in Jerusalem did not 
cease to be the church of God because two un- 
Discernment and worthy persons obtained recogni- 

judgment necessary ft Qn { n ft rpj^g incident gave oc- 
casion for the church to manifest its inherent life 
by its ability to discern and then cast off the secret 
offenders just as a healthy physical body casts off 
effete matter. As a result of the judgment pro- 
nounced on Ananias and Sapphira, " great fear 
came upon all the church . . . and of the rest 
durst no man join himself to them; but the people 
magnified them" (Acts 5 : 11, 13). The fiery judg- 
ments of God put an end to formal church- joining 
there, as a result of which "believers were the 
more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men 
and women" (verse 14). "And the Lord added 
to them day by day those that were being saved" 
(Acts 2: 47, R. Vl). 

A clean, pure local church was the divine stand 
ard. It is evident that such could never be ob- 
tained and maintained except by the power of the 
Holy Spirit, who discerned evil and prompted its 
elimination. Peter discerned the condition of the 
two false members in the church at Jerusalem and 
removed that blemish. He also exposed the hy- 
pocrisy of Simon at Samaria, and Paul pointed 
out the evil affection in the church at Corinth and 
directed its removal. Chief responsibility for the 



38 The Church in Apostolic Days 

maintenance of the normal condition of the church 
will be considered in our discussion of the partic- 
ular features of church organization and govern- 
ment. 

We have shown the characteristic, spiritual fea- 
tures of a New Testament congregation in its nor- 
Apostasy mal condition ; also the possibility 

possible f deviation from that standard. 

A practical question is, How far could such a con- 
gregation lapse into an abnormal state and still be 
a church of God? Or, Can a church as a body 
backslide? The church at Ephesus evidently was 
on the verge of such an apostasy. Therefore in 
the special message addressed to it in Revelation 
the Lord said: "I have somewhat against thee, 
because thou hast left thy first love. Remember 
therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, 
and do the first works ; or else I will come unto thee 
quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his 
place" (Rev. 2 : 4, 5) . So also the church at Laod- 
icea. "I know thy works, that thou art neither 
cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So 
then because thou art luke warm, and neither cold 
nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth" (Rev. 
3:15,16). 

The physical body may experience the mutila- 
tion of some of its members and still survive, but 
there is a limit beyond which death will ensue. So 
also the spiritual body may survive the encum- 
brance of a few false members. From the general 



The Local Church 39 

facts and principles already adduced, however, we 
may safely assert that a local church is a church 
The line of of God only so long as it is able 

distinction ^o function properly as a body. 

As long as the Spirit of God is in the ascendency, 
so that the people of God as a body manifest the 
power of God, maintain the truth of God, are filled 
with the Spirit of God, and are actually used by 
the Spirit in performing the works of God, so long 
they are the church of God. Whenever another 
spirit gains the ascendency and the divine, spiri- 
tual characteristics are lost to view, then is brought 
to pass the saying that is written, "I will spew 
thee out of my mouth." Beyond that time they 
may continue their formal services, singing 
hymns, saying prayers, and making speeches ; but 
the real message of God describing their condi- 
tion is, as was true of Sardis, ' ' Thou hast a name 
that thou livest, and art dead" (Rev. 3:1). Such 
dead congregations are no longer a part of the 
true church and are unworthy of the recognition of 
spiritual congregations. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE ORGANIZATION AND GOVERNMENT OF THE 
CHURCH 

We have already shown that the words of 
Christ "I will build my church' ' have a deeper 
The fact of meaning than the simple preaeh- 

organization j ng f t ^ e kingdom. They imply 

the formation of an organized structure against 
which even the gates of hell should not prevail. 
They can signify nothing less than the visible es- 
tablishment of the church among men as the con- 
crete embodiment of the divine kingdom or fam- 
ily. The church, then, as made up of local con- 
gregations, is an institution of divine appoint- 
ment. This is shown by the words of Christ in 
Matt. 18 : 17, according to which it sometimes be- 
comes necessary in admonishing and disciplining 
trespassers to 'Hell it unto the church"; and the 
appellation "church of God" is frequently applied 
to individual congregations (1 Cor. 1: 2, et al.). 

Many teachers hold that Christ did not build a 
church and that the "form of church organization 
is not definitely prescribed in the New Testament, 
but is a matter of expediency, every body of be- 
lievers being permitted to adopt that method of 
organization which best suits its circumstances 
and condition. " Such is the Protestant view put 
forth by those who seek an excuse for the modern 

41 



42 The Church in Apostolic Days 

system of sect-building. The incorrectness of this 
theory is easily shown. First, as we shall see, it 
underestimates the need of divine direction in 
church relationship and ignores well-established 
facts in the New Testament history. Secondly, if 
it proves anything, it proves too much; for to 
admit such a principle of "church powers' ' is to 
admit that the papacy and every other human 
system of church control is justified— systems 
which can be historically shown to be subversive 
of the church as a spiritual body. 

That the church was actually organized into 
local assemblies in apostolic days is abundantly 
shown by the New Testament record. They had 
regular meetings at stated times (Heb. 10:25; 
Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:12); officers (Acts 20:28; 
1 Pet. 5:2; Eph. 4: 11, 12) ; recognized authority 
(1 Tim. 5:17; Heb. 13:17); discipline (1 Cor. 
5: 13; 2 Thess. 3: 6, 10-14) ; a system of contribu- 
tions (1 Cor. 16:1, 2); ordinances (Acts 20:7; 
1 Cor. 10 : 16 ; 11 : 23-29) ; a common work, etc. On 
one occasion Paul instructed Titus to "set in order 
the things that are Wanting, and ordain elders in 
every city" (Tit. 1:5). 

The words of Jesus "I will build my church" 
point us to the Christ as its real founder. Since 
the life and genius of the church is the superhu- 
man element, which element must at all times be 
given precedence over mere outward forms and 
human characteristics, and since this life proceeds 



Organization and Government 43 

from Christ as the Bedeemer of men, therefore in 
all fundamental aspects he is the personal founder 
By whom of the church. But more than 

effected . t\As y working by proxy, Jesus 

gave even external form to his church, employing 
for this purpose his chosen apostles, to whom he 
gave special instruction and authority. Even dur- 
ing his personal ministry Jesus performed some 
of his work by proxy. It is expressly stated that 
he baptized many (John 3: 22; 4:1), and yet ex- 
planation is made that " Jesus himself baptized 
not, but his disciples" (John 4:2). 

So also in the organization of the church. The 
germ of that organization existed during Christ's 
personal ministry. Doctrine was given, ministers 
preached, baptism was administered, and people 
believed, but this embryonic organization could 
not be completely established as a church before 
the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Therefore pro- 
vision was made for its progressive development 
under the tutelage of specially inspired apostles. 
Doctrine was given gradually, yet invariably 
through the oral and written teaching of these in- 
spired apostles. Therefore we can not but be- 
lieve that the same invariable guidance of the Holy 
Spirit also perfected through them God's own 
plan of church organization and work. The grad- 
ual development of church organization under the 
labors of the apostles, therefore, no more proves 
the theory of a constant historic development than 



44 The Church in Apostolic Days 

does the fact of a gradual unfolding of the Chris- 
tian faith and doctrine by the apostles prove a con- 
stant and unending revelation of the gospel 
through all succeeding ages. One writer has well 
said, ' ' The same promise of the Spirit which ren- 
ders the New! Testament an unerring and sufficient 
rule of faith renders it also an unerring and suf- 
ficient rule of practise for the church in all places 
and times.' ' We must therefore regard the or- 
ganization of the church, as we do the unfolding 
of the gospel message, as complete in all its fun- 
damental and essential aspects before the close 
of the sacred canon. 

There is no doubt that the apostles occupied a 
special place in the divine establishment of the 
Apostolic church and its message. Regarded 

agency as a temple, the church is " built 

upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, 
Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone ' ' 
(Eph. 2:20). The Old Testament Scripture 
1 ' came not in old time by the will of man : but holy 
men of God spake as they were moved by the 
Holy Ghost" (2 Pet. 1:21). But now we read, 
' ' God, who at sundry times and in divers manners 
spake in time past unto the fathers by the proph- 
ets, hath in these last days spoken unto us BY HIS 
SON" (Heb. 1:1, 2). Moses, representative of 
the law, and Elias, representative of the prophets, 
appeared in glory on the Mount of Transfigura- 
tion; but when Peter suggested that they be ac- 



Organization and Government 45 

corded equal honors with Jesus, immediately a 
cloud overshadowed the company and a voice out 
of the cloud said, "This is my beloved Son, in 
whom I am well pleased; HEAR YE HIM." 
"And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw 
no man, save Jesus only" (Matt. 17:1-8). 

The revelation of divine truth, therefore, as the 
foundation of our faith, reached its highest level 
Model for in the Son. We need not look for 

ail ages another gospel— hear him. He 

has also said, "I will build my church"; hence 
we need not look for another church— HEAR 
HIM ! Paul declares that the gospel with its rev- 
elation of the "mystery" of the union of the saved 
in one body, the church, was in his day "made 
manifest/' and, "according to the commandment 
of the everlasting God, made known to all nations 
for the obedience of faith" (Rom. 16: 25, 26). See 
Eph. 2 ; 3 : 1-10. While therefore Christ was the 
author of the truth in its highest form of revela- 
tion, also the founder of his church, both reached 
their fulness of perfection under the inspired 
apostles and was by them "made known to all na- 
tions for the obedience of faith." The unity of all 
believers for which Christ solemnly prayed was 
to be accomplished through the direct agency of 
the apostles, the result of believing on Christ 
"through THEIR Word" (John 17:20). 

In describing how both Jews and Gentiles were 
reconciled in one body by the cross, Paul says that 



46 The Church in Apostolic Days 

God "hath raised us up together, and made us sit 
together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: that 
in the ages to come he might show the exceeding 
riches of his grace" (Bph. 2:6, 7). The unified 
church of the apostolic day is therefore the divine 
model for all succeeding ages. 

Since the first apostles were employed as special 
agents in establishing the perfected New Testa- 
Paui's reia- ment church, Paul's connection 

tion thereto therewith is of particular im- 

portance. Paul was not one of the original twelve, 
yet he exerted a tremendous influence in that 
period and was undoubtedly one of the chief agents 
used in establishing the church and fixing its ex- 
ternal form and character. 

Many believe that Paul belonged among the 
twelve as the real successor of Judas. According 
to this view, the election of Matthias to the apos- 
tle ship was without divine sanction, being pro- 
posed by the impetuous Peter, who, before the 
descent of the Holy Ghost, often proposed in- 
advised things. Strength is given this view by the 
oft- repeated assertion of Paul that he was an 
apostle, "not of men, neither by men, but by Je- 
sus Christ" (Gal. 1:1). We are not forced to 
that conclusion concerning Matthias, however. In 
writing the Acts of the Apostles, Luke, the com- 
panion of Paul, records the appointment of Mat- 
thias without intimating that it was a mistake. In 
Scripture usage a certain parallelism is main- 



Organization and Government 47 

tained between the twelve apostles of the Lamb 
and the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. 
When we recall that there were literally thirteen 
tribes in Israel, Ephriam and Manasseh standing 
for Joseph, we need not be surprized that there 
should be literally thirteen foundational apostles 
in the Christian church, Matthias and Paul stand- 
ing, as it were, in the place of Judas. 

There can be no doubt that Paul really ranked 
with the Twelve. He was a "chosen vessel," the 
' ' apostle of the Gentiles. ' ' Although as one ' ' born 
out of due time," he himself saw Jesus and from 
him received the entire gospel by direct revela- 
tion. Consequently the other apostles possessed 
no advantage over him. He himself says, "The 
gospel which was preached of me was not after 
man. For I neither received it of man, neither was 
I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ ' ' 
(G-al. 1: 11, 12). He "was not a whit behind the 
very chief est apostles" (2 Cor. 11:5). And it 
Was through Paul particularly that the revela- 
tion of the "mystery" was made complete— "that 
both Jews and Gentiles should be fellow heirs and 
of the SAME body," and he was commissioned 
"to make all men see" it. 

The general church was, therefore, made up of 
various local congregations, which were "set in 
order" by apostolic authority. The essential na- 
ture of this organization is determined by the ob- 
ject for which these congregations were formed, 



48 The Church in Apostolic Days 

the conditions of membership therein, and the kind 
of laws by which they were governed. 

The primary object for which the local church 
was formed was the establishment and extension 
Nature of its of the kingdom of God among 

organization men. A secondary object was the 

encouragement and mutual edification of the be- 
lievers themselves, which was best obtained by 
united worship in prayer, exhortation, praise, 
thanksgiving, and religious instruction. 

We have already noted the conditions of mem- 
bership in the local church. None but those who 
were already members of the body of Christ could 
properly be recognized as members in a congre- 
gation which was designed by Christ to exhibit in 
local and temporary form the true idea of the 
church universal. According to this standard of 
membership, every individual owed allegiance 
directly to Christ himself as the great head of the 
church. Christ was the only lawgiver. The rela- 
tion of the individual to the local churdh, then, dM 
not in any sense supersede his personal relations 
to Christ, but simply strengthened and further ex- 
pressed this higher relationship. 

In this standard of church-membership is found 
the secret of the union in one body of all apostolic 
Christians. The standard was personal relation- 
ship to Christ y and this relationship could be ob- 
tained only by an experience of salvation and hum- 
ble obedience to the law of Christ. Therefore all 



Organization and Government 49 

the truly saved were members of Christ and mem- 
bers of each other. This standard being the same 
for all, it led to absolute equality among members. 
Hence Paul could say, "There is neither Jew nor 
Gfreek, there is neither bond nor free, there is 
neither male nor female: for ye are all one in 
Christ Jesus" (Gal. 3:28). 

The law of the church, as already stated, was 
simply "the law of Christ " ; first as delivered oral- 
ly by specially inspired apostles, and afterwards 
expressed by them in the Christian Scriptures. 

The closest relationship necessarily existed be- 
tween the organization of the church and its 
Organization method of government. It is inl- 

and government possible for us to get a clear con- 
ception of either independently of the other; and 
in order to understand the subject at all, we must 
bear in mind the fundamental nature of the church 
itself, what it was and what it was designed to 
accomplish. The church was not, as we have seen, 
a mere aggregate of individuals that happened to 
gather or that assembled for ordinary purposes. 
A social club or a business organization would 
have possessed all those features. The church was 
the body of Christ, the body to which he gave spir- 
itual life and through which he designed to mani- 
fest his power and glory. Hence its visible organ- 
ization was secondary, merely incidental as the 
means for the accomplishment of those higher ends 
involved in the transcendental element of the 



50 The Church in Apostolic Days 

church. The relation of the divine and the human 
characteristics was, therefore, the relation of soul 
and body— Christ, the soul; redeemed humanity, 
the hody. The establishment of this relationship 
was the manifestation to the world of the "body of 
Christ. ,, It was organization of the church. 

From the foregoing considerations, we are cer- 
tain that in the apostolic church the real emphasis 
was placed on life and that the governmental 
power and authority of the church was derived 
from its divine life in Christ and not from its 
organization. Apostolic church government was, 
therefore, more than the adoption of some partic- 
ular form of external organization and adminis- 
tration. 

The origin of the church was divine. Jesus 
said, ' ' I will build my church. ' ' And though, as 
Divine ad- we have seen, he employed human 

ministration agents in its completion, these 

agents were so specially inspired and directed by 
Christ through the Holy Spirit that it was in real- 
ity his work. Jesus was not only the initial founder 
of the church, but he was its permanent head and 
governor. Isaiah, predicting the coming of Christ, 
declares that "the government shall be upon HIS 
shoulder" (Isa. 9:6). And again, we read that 
"HE is the head of the body, the church . . . that 
in all things he might have the preeminence" (Col. 
1:18). He it Was who called and commissioned 
Paul and then personally directed his ministerial 



Organization and Government 51 

labors (Acts 26:13-19; 16:6-9). He it was who 
walked in the midst of the seven golden candle- 
sticks, encouraging or reproving the congregations 
of Asia (Bev. 1 : 17, et seq.). He is "alive forever 
more'' (Rev. 1:18); "the same yesterday, and 
today, and forever" (Heb. 13: 8) ; "upholding all 
things by the word of his power" (Heb. 1:3). 
"To him be glory in the church . . . throughout 
all ages, world Without end. Amen" (Eph. 
3:21). 

Thus, the general nature of church government 
was an absolute monarchy, or, to use a better term, 
Christ the a theocracy. Christ was king 

living head an( j lawgiver, governor and ad- 

ministrator. Whoever the instruments employed 
in carrying out his purposes, whatever the scope 
of their particular activities, all were governed 
directly by Christ through the Holy Spirit. It 
was his church. He was its living head. No other 
church was known in those days. It was only when 
the living, vital union of Christ with his church 
was lost to view that men began endeavoring to 
strengthen the bonds of external union by unscrip- 
tural human organization, just as when life is 
departed from the physical body we seek by an 
embalming process to prevent its speedy disso- 
lution. 

In order to understand church government, 
therefore, we must begin at the central source of 
authority and proceed to its varied manifesta- 



52 The Church in Apostolic Days 

tions. We have seen that Christ employed human 
agents in accomplishing his work; hence, in thus 
performing the work of Christ as commanded by 
Delegated Christ, and as personally directed 

authority ^y the Spirit of Christ, these men 

possessed the authority of Christ. Any chur-ch 
governmental authority that does not proceed di- 
rectly from Christ through his Holy Spirit is but 
human authority, an usurped authority, and has 
no place in the real church of Christ. 

The apostles were the first to whom Christ 
delegated authority. They became his special 
Ministerial representatives. They established 

oversight tn e church and became responsi- 

ble for its general direction and oversight, "the 
Lord working with them, and confirming the word 
with signs following' ' (Mark 16:20). But these 
twelve did not stand alone in the government of 
the church. Soon a host of ministers were raised 
up, and these also possessed divine authority for 
their representative lines of work. To the elders 
of Ephesus, Paul said, "Take heed therefore unto 
yourselves, and to all the flock, over which the 
Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the 
church of God" (Acts 20 : 28). Peter also writes : 
"The elders which are among you I exhort . . . 
feed the flock of God which is among you, taking 
the oversight thereof" (1 Pet. 5:1, 2). "The 
Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul 
for the work whereunto I have called them ... 



Organization and Government 53 

so they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, de- 
parted" (Acts 13: 2-4). "AND HE GAVE some, 
apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evan- 
gelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the 
perfecting of the saints, for the work of the min- 
istry, for the edifying of the body of Christ' ' 
(Eph. 4: 11, 12). In accordance with this stand- 
ard, we read, ' l Obey them that have the rule over 
you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for 
your souls, as they that must give account" to him 
who is "that great shepherd of the sheep" (Heb. 
13: 17, 20). The ministers were under-shepherds 
appointed to feed the flock of God, for which ser- 
vice they had to give account to the great Shep- 
herd. 

The foregoing scriptures and many others show 
conclusively that, while in the apostolic church 
spiritual oversight was, in general, vested in the 
ministry, it did not originate with them; that it 
did not proceed from the general body of believ- 
ers by a majority vote or by conference appoint- 
ment; but that it came by the Holy Spirit direct 
from the great head of the church, who alone de- 
termined the general bounds of that authority and 
responsibility. This ministry, or presbytery, con- 
sisted of two classes— local ministers and general 
ministers. Before proceeding from this general 
classification to a discussion of the more specific 
duties and responsibilities of the individual min- 
isters comprising this presbytery, I shall call at- 



54 The Church in Apostolic Days 

tention briefly to the geographical distribution of 
their work as a body. 

We have already shown that the church in its 
visible phase was made up of various local congre- 
Locai and gen- gations "set in order" by apos- 
erai phase ^ }i c authority. So far as their 

own local affairs were concerned, these congrega- 
tions were autonomous. When a matter was pure- 
ly local, such as the financial oversight and min- 
istration in the church at Jerusalem, the local con- 
gregation itself determined the course of action 
and (excepting that class of officials who were di- 
vinely chosen) who should be appointed to over- 
see it. In the Jerusalem example cited, the apos- 
tles suggested, "Look ye out among you seven 
men," etc., "and the saying pleased the whole 
multitude: and they chose 9 ' the proper persons 
for that work (Acts 6:1-5). 

But while these congregations possessed such 
autonomy and were distributed over a wide ter- 
ritory, they were not in all respects independent, 
isolated units. As members of Christ sharing in 
a common life and engaged in a common cause, 
they were bound together in one brotherhood by 
ties of fellowship and love. In addition to the 
union of separate individuals in one locality under 
the care of the local presbytery, the local congre- 
gations themselves were brought into close, sym- 
pathetic relationship with one another through the 
labors and influence of those general ministers who 



Organization and Government 55 

were not attached to particular churches, but 
whose gifts, callings, and qualifications fitted them 
for general service throughout the various congre- 
gations. The responsibility and authority of these 
general ministers varied in accordance with their 
own gifts and qualifications and the degree of de- 
velopment attained by the churches among which 
they labored. In the case of infant churches, it is 
evident that oversight was of the apostolic kind- 
direct and immediate. But whenever they became 
thoroughly established, the principle of local au- 
tonomy was recognized and the relation of the gen- 
eral ministers to such congregations was evan- 
gelistic rather than apostolic— helpers and ad- 
visors, not administrative directors. 

That the foregoing analysis is correct is abun- 
dantly proved by the history of events in the Acts 
Geographical respecting the geographical dis- 

tribution tribution of the churches and their 

relation to one another. Jerusalem was the orig- 
inal seat of Christianity. Isaiah prophesied, "Out 
of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the 
Lord from Jerusalem" (Isa. 2:3). Jesus told 
the apostles "that repentance and remission of 
sins should be preached in his name among all 
nations, beginning at Jerusalem" (Luke 24:47). 
And again, "Ye shall be witnesses unto me both 
in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, 
and unto the uttermost part of the earth" (Acts 
1:8). Philip went from Jerusalem to Samaria 



56 The Church in Apostolic Days 

a/ad there preached Christ with great success. 
' ' Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem 
heard that Samaria had received the Word of God, 
they sent unto them Peter and John" (Acts 8: 14). 
Later we read that when churches had been estab- 
lished throughout all Judea and Galilee and Sa- 
maria, "it came to pass, as Peter passed through- 
out all quarters, he came down also to the saints 
which dwelt at Lydda" (Acts 9:31, 32). It was 
while he was on this general tour visiting the 
churches that he came to Joppa and there received 
the vision which led him to the household of Cor- 
nelius, after which he came to Jerusalem and was 
there called to account for his action in visiting the 
uncircumcised Gentiles. 

There is no doubt that there was exerted from 
Jerusalem a general care over the surrounding 
churches. Some of the disciples who were scat- 
tered from Jerusalem at the time of persecution, 
went as far as Cyprus and Antioch, preaching the 
word, and many believed and turned to the Lord. 
"Then tidings of these things came unto the ears 
of the church which was in Jerusalem: and they 
sent forth Barnabas that he should go as far as 
Antioch' ' (Acts 11:19-22). Barnabas went to 
Antioch and there found such a splendid work 
that he departed at once for Tarsus seeking Saul, 
and together they returned to Antioch and 
preached for a whole year. 

While this principle of general superintendence 



Organization and Government 57 

of infant churches originated with the apostles 
themselves, it was extended to others who were 
operative not of the first apostles. Barna- 

centers k as an( j g au i we re successful at 

Antioch and there established the first Christian 
community outside the confines of Judaism, as the 
result of which Antioch became the seat of Gen- 
tile Christianity. Shortly afterwards " certain 
prophets and teachers" in the church at Antioch, 
men who were not of the original apostles, were 
directed by the Holy Ghost to send forth Barna- 
bas and Saul on their first missionary journey, 
and they went forth establishing local churches 
and afterwards setting them in order by ordaining 
elders, after which these ministers returned to 
Antioch, gathered the church together, and gave 
them a report of their work. Antioch was, there- 
fore, an operative center. 

At a later time Paul established the truth in 
Ephesus, the chief city of Proconsular Asia. As 
might naturally be expected from the strategic 
position and political importance of that city, 
Ephesus also became an operative center for 
Christianity, ' ' so that all they which dwelt in Asia 
heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and 
Greeks' ' (Acts 19:10). Thessalonica in Mace- 
donia and Corinth in Achaia are other examples of 
the kind. 

The work of the church naturally fell into these 
geographical units; therefore the word " church' ' 



58 The Church in Apostolic Days 

is sometimes used as a collective term designating 
a body of regional congregations. The church 
Regional "throughout all Judea and Gal- 

"^ ilee and Samaria" (Acts 9:31), 

"the seven churches which are in Asia" (Kev. 
1: 11), "the churches of Macedonia" (2 Cor. 8:1), 
"the churches of Galatia" (1 Cor. 16: 1). 

We must bear in mind, however, that this re- 
gional concept of the church was not an integral 
part of fundamental apostolic church government, 
but was merely incidental, the result of geograph- 
ical location. In fundamental analysis distinc- 
tions are always drawn between things that are 
different, not between things of the same kind. 
These regional churches Were not different kinds 
of churches ; they were not bound together in sep- 
arate groups by an external organization which 
placed a wall between them and other congrega- 
tions of the saints. There was no authority here 
for the national-church theory nor for the secta- 
rian church idea. Geographical separation there 
was, but not denominationalism. 

We have already shown from Paul's writings 
that under his ministry both Jews and Gentiles 
Common bond were united in one body, "the 

of unity same body. ' ' That these regional 

units to which we have referred were no denial 
of this clear truth, but that collectively they con- 
stituted one body, is further shown by the indica- 
tions we have of their operative unity. Notwith- 



Organization and Government 59 

standing the poor facilities for communication and 
travel in those days, which made general coopera- 
tion very difficult, and notwithstanding the fact 
that the record of historic Christianity in the Acts 
is exceedingly brief, we have, nevertheless, clear 
proof that there Was cooperation throughout the 
apostolic church. Two instances, one of a business 
nature, the other ecclesiastical, establish this point. 
The churches of at least three provinces of the 
Roman Empire— Galatia, Macedonia, and Achaia 
—united under Paul's direction in establishing a 
weekly financial system^ the immediate object of 
which was to assist in accomplishing a particular 
object in which they were all interested (2 Cor. 
8 : 9 ; 1 Cor. 16 : 1-3) . The ecclesiastical example is 
the council of the apostles and elders held in Jeru- 
salem and recorded in Acts 15. A question of doc- 
trine and practise arose in Antioch; the church 
there was not able to settle it; therefore it was 
"determined that Paul and Barnabas, and certain 
other with them, should go up to Jerusalem unto 
the apostles and elders about this question" 
(verse 2). 

This was not a general council of the church. 
No other sections or provinces were represented. 
Nor did it meet as a legislative body, even though 
there were present specially inspired apostles, to 
whom had been given the commission to unfold 
the gospel as an authoritative revelation. It is 
clear that the ministers of this council even sought 



60 The Church in Apostolic Days 

to avoid the legislative function. "For it seemed 
good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you 
no greater burden than these necessary things' ' 
(verse 28) . While this incident does not prove an 
administrative human headship of the whole 
church centralized at Jerusalem, it does prove that 
the individual congregations were not isolated 
units, but that they had respect for, and sought the 
advice and counsel of, older established congre- 
gations, and particularly of those general minis- 
ters whose gifts, qualifications, and reputation 
fitted them for general care of all the churches. 

When we consider the divine nature of the 
church's organization, with the ever-living Christ 
working mightily in all his ministers and through 
them in particular administering its government, 
we can see that the entire church was necessarily 
one body joined together in a common fellowship 
and actually laboring together in the performance 
of common tasks. 

The presbytery, to whom was given particular 
oversight and government of the church, was set 
Bishop and apart by the Holy Ghost for this 

Blder special work. Different terms, 

such as " elder " and " bishop,' ' were used to des- 
ignate this office. The term "bishop," which lit- 
erally means overseer, implies the duties of the 
office, while ' i elder ' ' denotes its rank. That these 
terms were used interchangeably and applied to 
the same order of persons is proved by Acts 20 : 28 



Organization and Government 61 

(cf. 17); Phil. 1:1; 1 Tim. 3:1, 8; Tit. 1:5, 7; 
1 Pet. 5:1, 2. This was admitted hy many early 
writers, as Jerome, Augustine, Urban II, Petrus 
Lombardus, Chrysostom, Theodoret, and others. 

From the general classification already given, 
let us proceed to the specific. This body was made 
up of elders or bishops. The fact that the terms 
"elder" and "bishop" were applied to all the 
presbyters shows equality of rank; that the office 
was one. We find, however, that these elders as 
individuals were diversified in their gifts and call- 
ings in accordance with the specific work which 
the Holy Ghost designed them to perform. Under 
one classification there were, broadly speaking, 
two kinds of elders— local and general; that is, 
those whose sphere of operation was particularly 
local and those whose influence, work, and respon- 
sibility extended beyond any congregational limi- 
tation. This distinction was not made arbitrarily, 
however; for it was essential to the performance 
of the twofold class of work to be done and was the 
inevitable result of that operation of the Spirit 
in individual ministers which fitted them' partic- 
ularly for these distinctive lines of activity. 

To be still more specific, we must go a step 
farther and consider the reason why and the proc- 
ess by which ministers became differentiated from 
other saints. In this we shall find the inner secret, 
both of particular spiritual organization and of 
divine church government. The apostle says, "By 



62 The Church in Apostolic Days 

one Spirit are we all baptized into one body ' ' and 
' i God hath set the members every one of them in 
Divine the body, as it hath pleased him" 

^ fts (1 Cor. 12:13, 18). These texts 

suggest more than a mere attachment to the body : 
they imply functional activity in the body. The 
functions of the body as described by Paul means 
the exercise of spiritual gifts. "Now there are 
diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit . . . there 
are diversities of operations, but it is the same God 
which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of 
the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. 
For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wis- 
dom ; to another the word of knowledge by the same 
Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; to 
another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit ; to 
another the working of miracles ; to another proph- 
ecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another 
divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpre- 
tation of tongues; but all these worketh that one 
and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man 
severally as he will" (1 Cor. 12: 4-11). 

The foregoing scripture is a mere enumeration 
of the gifts that God implanted in the church as 
Basis of minis- a body. The more particular ap- 
teriai authority plication of these gifts and their 
relation to church organization and government 
are given further on in the same chapter. "Now 
ye are the body of Christ, and members in par- 
ticular. And God hath set some in the church. 



Organization and Government 63 

first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teach- 
ers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, 
helps, governments, diversities of tongues. Are 
all apostles ? are all prophets ? are all teachers 1 are 
all workers of miracles 1 have all the gifts of heal- 
ing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret! 
But covet earnestly the best gifts" (verses 27-31). 

Comparison of verses 4 to 11 with verses 27 to 
31 of the chapter just quoted shows conclusively 
that one is the counterpart of the other, the latter 
merely amplifying and explaining the former. 
From this clear teaching it is evident that the 
work of apostleship, of teaching, of governing, etc., 
were all based upon and grew out of divine gifts 
implanted in the heart by the Holy Spirit. 

The same truth is taught by Paul in another 
place. Speaking of Christ, the apostle says, 
"When he ascended up on high, he . . . gave gifts 
unto men . . . and he gave some, apostles; and 
some, prophets; and some, evangelists ; and some, 
pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the 
saints, for the wtork of the ministry, for the edify- 
ing of the body of Christ" (Eph. 4: 8-12). 

According to these scriptures, the very govern- 
mental positions of the church with their author- 
ity and responsibility were the product of those 
gifts and qualifications bestowed upon certain in- 
dividuals in particular. Such gifts could be legit- 
imately coveted with a view to spiritual edification 
of the body (1 Cor. 12:31; 14:12). "If a man 



64 The Church in Apostolic Days 

desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good 
work " ( 1 Tim. 3:1). " Helps ' ' doubtless included 
that class of assistants commonly called deacons 
(1 Tim. 3:8-11). 

Since in the primitive church organization and 
government were determined by the divine gifts 
and callings possessed by individuals, it is evident 
that we have in this something totally different 
from that later conception of church government 
as a mere human arrangement. At a subsequent 
time, as we shall show, church government was pat- 
terned after the forms of political government in 
that it was vested inherently in men. Four such 
forms have been developed— the imperial, or pa- 
pal; the episcopal; the presbyterial ; and the con- 
gregational. While these four differ in external 
form, they are all alike in fundamental character, 
in that they assume that the governing power 
rests inherently in men. 

None of these forms of government represent 
the New Testament church. The organization and 
government of that church was based upon the 
charisma, or divine gifts and callings, of individ- 
uals composing the church. The power and au- 
thority of an apostle or of an evangelist, for ex- 
ample, did not rest upon any selection or appoint- 
ment made by men. The church did not act in a 
corporate capacity and confer ecclesiastical power 
and authority upon any one. All such power and 
authority came direct from God through the Holy 



Organization and Government 65 

Spirit, and it was in God's name and by his author- 
ity alone that they acted. The organization of the 
church was therefore charismatic. If, for ex- 
ample, the gifts of an apostle were conferred by 
the Holy Spirit upon an individual, he possessed 
apostolic responsibility and authority. The breth- 
ren recognized such gifts when these were evident, 
and submitted themselves voluntarily to such spir- 
itual leadership and oversight; for at this period 
there had not been developed that ecclesiastical 
system by which human election and appointment 
gave positions and authority to men. In fact, we 
shall clearly show later that the true church can 
not be legally organized. Every attempt of men 
to assume the reins of authority and give govern- 
mental form and administrative direction to the 
church has been denominational and sectarian. 

The true church was the whole family of God 
directed by his Holy Spirit. Ministerial appoint- 
ordination m-ent, with its authority and re- 

sponsibility, was therefore divine. We have seen 
that through the spiritual operation called the new 
birth, one became a member of Christ, and hence 
by divine right belonged to whichever congrega- 
tion of the church he might be able to associate 
with; but that in practical experience, such local 
membership involved recognition on the part of 
the other members. So it was with the divine ap- 
pointment to the ministry. The only other essen- 
tial to its practical operation was simply recog- 



66 The Church in Apostolic Days 

nition of that call. Such recognition, in the last 
analysis, belonged to the whole church (1 Tim. 
3:2-7; Tit. 1:6-9), but was given formally by the 
laying on of the hands of the presbytery. 

The development of ministers in an apostolic 
church was a divine, natural process, the inevita- 
piuraiity of ble result of the emphasis placed 

local eiders on the gifts and callings of the 

Spirit. This free exercise of the Spirit's gifts 
working in the members doubtless accounts for 
the plurality of ruling elders found in those local 
churches. See Acts 14:23; 20:17; Phil. 1:1; 
1 Tim. 5 : 16, 17 ; Tit. 1:5. It could not be other- 
wise as long as the churches were Spirit-filled, 
working congregations and the Spirit of God had 
his way. The system that limited local church 
government to a one-man rule originated in the 
apostasy, after the gifts of the Spirit had died 
out. It is simply one part of that great system 
of human organization that developed the full- 
grown papacy. Of this we shall learn more here- 
after. 

The same principles that developed local min- 
isters produced also ministers of the general class. 
While some naturally became " pastors,' ' " teach- 
ers,' ' and "helpers" in the local church, partic- 
ular gifts and qualifications fitted others for * ' apos- 
tles" and "evangelists," whose particular sphere 
was general oversight and work in the churches. 
The prophet was not limited to either class. 



Organization and Government 67 

As it is not germane to my present purpose, I 
shall not here attempt to define the various phases 
Apostolic of ministerial work designated by 

oversight various terms but all included 

under the one generic term " elder.' ' The work 
described by the term "apostle," however, re- 
quires brief notice, on account of its bearing on the 
subject of church government. The fact that Paul 
had particular "care of all the churches" (2 Cor. 
11:28) and that he gave special instructions to 
Timothy and Titus, other ministers (1 Tim. 5: 21; 
Tit. 1:5), forms the basis for the episcopacy argu- 
ment—church rule by a superior order of clergy 
called bishops. 

"Apostle" literally signifies "a planter." The 
term belongs specifically to the first founders of 
the Christian faith, but is loosely applied in a more 
general sense to any minister who plants Chris- 
tianity in a new territory. It is clear that the first 
apostles were especially inspired for a particular 
work in laying the foundations of the Christian 
church and in writing the New Testament Scrip- 
tures. Hence the apostolic office in this special 
sense passed away with them. But there was, 
nevertheless, an apostolic work such as planting 
and overseeing the infant work in a new field, and 
in this sense Barnabas also was an apostle (Acts 
13:46 with 14:4). 

That, the word i ' apostle ' ' really signified a 
planter and was therefore descriptive of the kind 



68 The Church in Apostolic Days 

of work done is shown by the words of Paul him- 
self : "For he that wrought effectually in Peter 
to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same 
was mighty in me toward the Gentiles" (Gal. 
2:8). And again, he says to the Corinthians, ' ' If 
I be not an apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am 
to you; for the seal of mine apostleship are ye in 
the Lord" (1 Cor. 9:2). In another place he says 
to the same church, ' l Though ye have ten thousand 
instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fath- 
ers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you 
through the gospel" (1 Cor. 4: 15). 

The special, personal relation that the apostle, 
or planter, sustained to the work which he had 
founded and over which he exercised general juris- 
diction, was but temporary, a sort of fatherly care. 
He was obliged to oversee the work as a whole, 
including young ministers, until it became thor- 
oughly established. After others were able for 
the work and the apostle 's special oversight was 
withdrawn, there might be ten thousand other in- 
structors, but no more fathers. This disproves 
entirely the episcopal idea as an essential feature 
of church government. The apostle Peter even 
classes himself simply as an elder in common with 
other elders (1 Pet. 5:1). But with the exception 
of the original apostles, who were specially com- 
missioned to reveal the doctrine and message of 
the gospel and to establish the Christian faith, the 
difference existing between elders in the primitive 



Organization and Government 69 

church was not a difference in kind, but in degree 
only, varying in accordance with their ability to 
put forth some portion of that moral and spiritual 
power by which alone Christ governs his church. 



PART II 
The Church in History 



CHAPTER V 

COEEUPTION OF EVANGELICAL FAITH 

It is not my purpose to write an ecclesiastical 
history, but in order to make clear the work of final 
reformation, it will be necessary to present at 
least a brief sketch of historic Christianity, outlin- 
ing particularly those leading features which show 
a radical departure from the true church as 
originally constituted by our Lord and his apos- 
tles. 

In the days of primitive Christianity there was 
something called "the gospel," "the truth," "the 
"The faith" form of sound words," "the 

faith." To understand its fundamental nature is 
not difficult, for it has been preserved and handed 
down to us in the writings of the New Testament. 
According to this record, the gospel message, or 
"the faith," centered in the person of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, who died and rose again that he 
might be a "Prince and a Savior, for to give re- 
pentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins" (Acts 
5:31). "And that repentance and remission of 
sins should be preached in his name among all na- 
tions, beginning at Jerusalem" (Luke 24:47). 
Around this central fact of salvation from sin 
through faith in Christ clustered those other 
truths and facts which either necessarily resulted 
from the new relationship of redeemed humanity 

73 



74: The Church in History 

with God or were essential to its visible manifesta- 
tion and propagation. Prominent among these 
features were the entire sanctification of believers, 
holy life and conduct, the baptism, gifts, and 
leadership of the Holy Spirit, and the visible unity 
and relationship of believers in one body, the 
church. 

I need not take time or space to describe the 
wonderful successes of Christianity as long as the 
An apostasy primitive purity and power of 

foretold ft ie gospel message was sustained 

and its results realized in a living, Spirit-filled 
church. But facts compel me to record a change 
from that happy condition. This transition was 
foreseen by those who ' ' spake as they were moved 
by the Holy Ghost.' ' Paul declared: "Some shall 
depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing 
spirits and doctrines of devils" (1 Tim. 4:1); 
"Also of your own selves shall men arise, speak- 
ing perverse things, to draw away disciples after 
them" (Acts 20:30). Peter predicted, "There 
shall be false teachers among you, who privily 
shall bring in damnable heresies" (2 Pet. 2:1). 
Jesus himself declared, "Many false prophets 
shall arise, and shall deceive many. And because 
iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax 
cold" (Matt. 24:11, 12). 

Paul gives a more particular description of the 
coming apostasy in the second chapter of Second 
Thessalonians. Asserting that the second coming 



Corruption of Evangelical Faith 75 

of Christ was not at that time imminent, he says : 
' - Let no man deceive you by any means : for that 
day shall not come, except there come a falling 
away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son 
of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself 
above all that is called God, or that is worshiped ; 
so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, 
showing himself that he is God" (verses 3, 4). 

The development of the "man of sin," which 
was occasioned by the "falling away," was to be 
gradual, but should finally assume great propor- 
tions, "so that he as God sitteth in the temple of 
God showing himself that he is God." The apos- 
tle further states: "For the mystery of iniquity 
doth already work: only he who now letteth will 
let, until he be taken out of the way. And then 
shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall 
consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall 
destroy with the brightness of his coming" 
(verses 7, 8). We should not seek for the fulfil- 
ment of this prediction in those minor sects and 
heresies which at an early date arose and soon 
passed away : the description refers to some great 
power occupying the greatest prominence, making 
the most pretentious claims, a power that is to en- 
dure until the second advent of Christ. We must, 
therefore, look for its fulfilment in what we may 
term the main line of historic Christianity. 

The * ' falling away ' ' from the simple truths and 
standards of the gospel began at a very early 



76 The Church in History 

date. The mystery of iniquity was already work- 
ing in the apostles' day. Before the close of the 
first century we find in the churches of Asia 
Minor a sad deflection from their primitive condi- 
First evidences tion. The church at Ephesus had 
of decline left its first love (Rev. 2:4); the 

church at Pergamos was tolerating false teachers 
and being ruined by false doctrines (2:14, 15); 
Thyatira had lost the spirit of holy judgment 
against wrong-doing and was therefore affected 
by a shocking degree of immorality (2 : 20-23) ; the 
message to Sardis was, "Thou hast a name that 
thou livest, and art dead (3:1); Laodicea had be- 
come so lukewarm that the Lord said, * ' I will spew 
thee out of my mouth' ' (3: 15, 16). 

The transition from the apostles to the age of 
the early church fathers is involved in consider- 
Tne apostolic able darkness. Not until the mid- 

fathers di e f the second century, when 

Justin Martyr appears on the scene, does the 
church emerge from its obscurity into the clear 
light of history. The apostolic fathers— Clement 
of Rome, Ignatius, the Pastor of Hermas, Papias, 
and the unknown author of the Epistle to Diog- 
netus— all these lived and wrote during that tran- 
sitional period, and they could have told us much, 
but they have told us little. We can not but ad- 
mire the beautiful spirit in which they wrote, and 
their style is earnest and vital. Nevertheless, we 
discern in these works two leading tendencies 



Corruption of Evangelical Faith 77 

which stand, so to speak, as prophecies of what was 
to predominate in the ecclesiastical thought of suc- 
ceeding centuries. 

In the mind of the author of the Epistle to 
Diognetus, the grand central thought is the in- 
carnation and the spiritual presence of Christ in 
redeemed humanity, by which they are led to the 
"free imitation of God," as a result of which they 
become to the world what the soul is to the body- 
its life and the means of holding it together. This 
teaching is an epitome of the Greek theology de- 
veloped later by Clement of Alexandria, Origen, 
and Athanasius. But in Papias, who attaches 
much importance to oral traditions that "came 
from the living and abiding voice"; in Ignatius, 
who exalts the bishop above other presbyters ; and 
in Clement, who, writing as a Roman, is concerned 
with matters of administration and subordination 
to authority— in these we discern the beginnings 
of the Latin theology developed later by TertuL 
lian, Irenaeus, Cyprian, and Augustine, which pro- 
duced the papacy, and which, as we shall show, has 
in a great measure dominated the ecclesiastical 
thought of the world until the present day. 

After emerging into the clear field of historic 
Christianity in the time of Justin Martyr, we find 
The Ante- everywhere evidences of a rapidly 

Nicene age developing apostasy. In one re- 

spect we approach an examination of the Ante- 
Nicene church with feelings of admiration. This 



78 The Church in History 

was a heroic age, an age of Christian martyrs. The 
struggles of Christianity against the powers of 
heathenism enthroned in the Roman Empire and 
throughout the world form a bright chapter in 
the annals of historic deeds and supreme loyalty 
to lofty ideals. When we view the subject from 
this angle, it would almost seem to be an act of 
irreverence or of sacrilege to call in question the 
doctrines and practises of that period when the 
church was baptized by fire and waded through 
rivers of blood. Reverence for the martyrs and 
for their noble efforts to extend the cause of Christ 
is praiseworthy, but in justice to truth, we must 
remember that even the martyrs were not inspired 
teachers commissioned to build a model for all 
succeeding, ages. That they were heroic does not 
prove them infallible. We should never hesitate, 
therefore, to compare their teaching with the pure 
doctrines of the Word of God, and wherein there 
is any lack of harmony, we should be guided by 
the truth as it is in Jesus. 

However much we may admire the early church 
fathers, we can not help noticing the sharp con- 
trast between them and the first apostles ; between 
their writings and the sublime, inspired teaching 
of the divine Word. If, after reading Paul, Peter, 
or John, we turn to Tertullian, Irenaeus, or Cy- 
prian, we instinctively realize that we have, so 
to speak, been transferred from sunny Italy to 
frigid Siberia, We are conscious of a change to 



Corruption of Evangelical Faith 79 

another era, and to another country. Notwith- 
standing the fact that we find numerous familiar 
objects, we know that we are moving in another 
atmosphere amid foreign surroundings. 

The church of the Middle Ages was the natural 
fruitage of the seeds planted during the second 
Growth of and third centuries. There we be- 

rituaUsm g an t no tice particularly foreign 

elements which stand out in hold contrast to the 
simple forms of primitive Christianity. One of 
these innovations was the development of the rit- 
ualistic spirit, according to which undue import- 
ance was attached to particular forms of worship, 
such as time, place, positions of the body, and cere- 
monial observances in general. Take baptism for 
an. example. Apart from erroneous notions con- 
cerning the efficacy of baptism, which will be re- 
ferred to under another head, the writings of the 
church fathers abound with the most minute and 
puerile details concerning how the act is to be per- 
formed—details of catechism, of consecration of 
waters, of dressing and undressing, exorcism, 
anointing from head to foot with oil, the laying 
on of hands, etc., all of which were to be carried 
out in the most exacting and solemn manner. 

As an example of the ritualistic character of 
Christian worship at the beginning of the third 
century, I will cite a passage from Tertullian. 
In the third chapter of his work De Corona, this 
celebrated Latin father undertakes to defend cus- 



80 The Church in History 

toms and practises that he confesses were received 
"on the ground of tradition alone.' ' He says: 
Example from "I shall begin with baptism. 

Tertuiiian When we are going to enter the 

water, but a little before, in the presence of the 
congregation and under the hand of the president, 
we solemnly profess that we disown the devil, and 
his pomp, and his angels. Whereupon we are 
thrice immersed, making a somewhat ampler 
pledge than the Lord has appointed in the gospel.* 
Then when we are taken up (as new-born children) 
we taste, first of all, a mixture of milk and honey, 
and from that day we abstain from the daily bath 
for a whole week. We take also, in congregations 
before daybreak, and from the hand of none but 
the president, the sacrament of the Eucharist, 
which the Lord both commanded to be done at 
mealtimes and enjoined to be taken by all alike. 
As often as the anniversary comes round, we make 
offerings for the dead as birthday honors. We 
count shouting or kneeling in worship on the 
Lord 's day to be unlawful. We rejoice in the same 
privilege also from Easter to Whitsunday. We 
feel pained should any wine or bread, even though 
our own, be cast upon the ground. At every for- 
ward step and movement, at every going in and 

* Tertuiiian is the earliest writer that clearly and unmis- 
takably teaches trine immersion, or records its practise. But 
here he honestly confesses that it is a "somewhat ampler pledge 
than the Lord has appointed in the gospel. ' ' 



Corruption of Evangelical Faith 81 

out, when we put on our clothes and shoes, when 
we bathe, when we sit at table, when we light the 
lamps, on couch, on seat, in all the ordinary actions 
of daily life, we trace upon the forehead the sign 
of the cross. ' ' 

In words immediately following, at the begin- 
ning of Chapter 4, Tertullian says: "If for these 
and other such rules you insist upon having pos- 
itive Scriptural injunction, you will find none. 
Tradition will be held forth to you as the orig- 
inator of them, custom as their strengthened and 
faith as their observer. ' ' 

According to this confession, all the ceremonial 
observances here set forth are without Scriptural 
authority. When we read in the New Testament 
concerning the simple act of baptizing believers, 
and compare it with the customs and practises that 
had grown up in the Ante-JNTicene church, we do 
not wonder that evangelical faith was soon after- 
wards almost entirely lost in ritualistic forms; 
that, like the Pharisees of old, men made the faith 
of God of none effect by their traditions. 

Another evidence of the decline of evangelical 
faith is found in the presence of many false doc- 
False doctrines trines among the leaders of so- 
and heresies called orthodox Christianity in 

that period of which I now write. Paul not only 
taught that at a later time some should "depart 
from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and 
devils' ' (1 Tim. 4:1), but he referred to some who 



82 The Church in History 

had already " erred concerning the faith' ' (1 Tim. 
6:21), and named two persons, 'who, concerning 
the truth, had erred, saying that the resurrection 
was past already, and overthrew the faith of some ' 
(2 Tim. 2: 18). After the death of the apostles, 
error made deeper inroads, and its baneful in- 
fluence cast a shadow over the church, which rap- 
idly deepened into the darkness of spiritual night. 

One of the earliest corruptions of apostolic truth 
concerned the design and purpose of baptism. It 
Baptismal was not long until unscriptural 

regeneration significance was attached to the 

literal rite itself, so that what was originally a 
mere sign, was substituted for the thing signified, 
and thus baptism took the place of spiritual regen- 
eration. In several places in the writings of Jus- 
tin Martyr, who lived about the middle of the sec- 
ond century, his language seems to attach undue 
importance to the literal rite; but other passages 
from the same author indicate that he had not as 
yet entirely lost sight of the apostolic standard. 
In his Dialog with Trypho, chapter 14, he says: 
"We have believed and testify that that very bap- 
tism which he [Isaiah] announced is alone able to 
purify those who have repented . . . and what is 
the use of that baptism which cleanses the flesh 
and body alone? Baptize the soul from wrath and 
covetousness, from envy and from hatred, and lo, 
the body is pure. ' ' 

In his First Apology, chapter 61, the same 



Corruption of Evangelical Faith 83 

writer draws a clear Biblical distinction between 
spiritual regeneration secured through repentance 
and faith, and ritual regeneration in baptism as a 
mere outward sign of the inward work. He says : 
"I will also relate the manner in which we ded- 
icated ourselves to God when we had been made 
new through Christ . . .as many as are per- 
suaded and believe that what we teach and say is 
truth, and undertake to be able to live accordingly, 
are instructed to pray and to entreat God with 
fasting for the remission of their sins that are past, 
we praying and fasting with them. Then they 
are brought by us where there is water and are 
regenerated in the same manner in which we were 
ourselves regenerated. For, in the name of God, 
the Father and Lord of the Universe, and of our 
Savior Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit, they 
then receive the washing with water. ' ' 

Other writers of the period under considera- 
tion, however, praise the saving efficacy of bap- 
tism in the most exalted terms. According to their 
minds, it is the actual means of the redemption of 
sins, not a mere literal rite expressing ceremonially 
the work of God 's Spirit within the heart ; it is an 
illumination ; it extinguishes the fire of sin ; it re- 
moves the unclean spirits from men and seals 
them for heaven. Tertullian wrote extensively on 
this subject. In his work On Baptism, chapters 3 
to 8, he maintains the doctrine of baptismal regen- 
eration "by which we are washed from the sins of 



84 The Church in History 

our former blindness and set free for eternal life." 
He declares that by this act men are prepared to 
receive the Holy Ghost; that in the literal act, 
"the spirit is corporeally washed in the waters, 
and the flesh is, in the same, spiritually cleansed. ' ' 
Cyprian, bishop of Carthage (third century), in 
his treatise concerning the Baptism of Heretics, 
teaches the same doctrine in no uncertain terms. 
The limits of this work preclude the historic 
treatment of the rise and development of the host 
other erroneous °^ f a l se doctrines and practises 
doctrines and that finally bound the people 

practises « n ^ e thralldom of superstition 

and plunged the world into the darkness of spir- 
itual night. One who is free from such influences 
can scarcely read without feelings of disgust the 
elaborate treatises of these church fathers wherein 
they extol the virtues of virginity as forming a new 
order of life, as an evidence of divinity, as making 
virgins while in this world " equal to the angels 
of God," and as a certain surety of special re- 
wards in heaven. From this false standard pro- 
ceeded at length the celibacy of the clergy and 
monkery with all their attendant evils. And the 
time would fail me to tell of the introduction of 
images and image-worship in the Western Church 
and of that superstitious regard for miserable 
relics of every description and kind. True evan- 
gelical faith was at length lost to view, buried be- 
neath the rubbish of men 's traditions. The treat- 



Corruption of Evangelical Faith 85 

ment of such matters, however, belongs to the 
church historian, and as the general facts are well- 
known, it is unnecessary here to make more than 
a brief reference to them so as to prepare the mind 
for that treatment of the reformation which is a 
special object of the present work. 



CHAPTER VI 

EISE OF ECCLESIASTICISM 

In order to understand the place which the work 
of reformation has in the plan and purpose of God 
Two phases respecting his church, we must 

of apostasy carefully observe the twofold 

character of the apostasy. Both these phases are 
clearly outlined in that remarkable prediction of 
Paul to which reference has already been made, 
recorded in the second chapter of Second Thes- 
salonians. The first phase, described as "a fall- 
ing away," was that decline from true Christian- 
ity which we have considered in the preceding 
chapter as the Corruption of Evangelical Faith. 
The second phase was the rise and development of 
a foreign element which was from its beginning 
"the mystery of iniquity' ' and which in certain 
respects usurped the true place of Jehovah him- 
self in spiritual worship in the temple of God. This 
phase now demands our special attention. 

Since the sixteenth century reformation a large 
part of the Christian world has renounced the 
right of the pope to sit as the supreme earthly 
head of the church, but we shall show later that 
these same modern Christians Who have sought 
the restoration of the evangelical faith have not 
discarded the essential elements of the papal hier- 
archical system, but have perpetuated them in 

87 



88 The Church in History 

their own ecclesiastical constitutions, and that this 
relic of medievalism is the chief barrier to a re- 
united Christendom and the restoration of pure 
apostolic Christianity. It is highly essential, 
therefore, that this phase of the apostasy be care- 
fully considered. It is not enough to reject the 
pope and his college of cardinals. If that tree, as 
judged by its fruits, is an "evil" tree, we should 
seek to know where, when, and by whom the evil 
seed from which it grew was first planted, and then 
reject it from the roots up. Then, and not until 
then, can the work of reformation be made com- 
plete. We have, therefore, to trace the rise and 
development of what may be forcibly expressed by 
the apparently pleonastic phrase human ecclesi- 
asticism. 

We have already seen that in the church, as 
originally constituted, organization, authority, 
Divine authority vs. and government proceeded from 
positional authority the divine and not from the hu- 
man. The agents whom Christ used in perform- 
ing his work and in overseeing his church were 
called and endowed by the Holy Spirit, and this 
divine endowment was the real basis of their 
authority and responsibility. Paul's authority 
and responsibility as an apostle, for example, was 
not positional authority, or authority proceeding 
from a certain position to which he had been ap- 
pointed or elected. His authority was divine, and 
out of that divine authority grew his positional 



Rise of Ecclesiasticism 89 

responsibility as the "apostle of the Gentiles." 
Over and over he affirmed that he was an apostle, 
"not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ" 
(Gal. 1:1). On the same principle the position, 
work, and responsibility of all the members of the 
body of Christ grew out of the gifts and qualifica- 
tions possessed by them, and thus the church was 
divinely organized and divinely governed. 

The bonds which united primitive Christians in 
one body were essentially moral and spiritual, 
original bond Christ was their ever-living and 

of union ever-acting head. Their life pro- 

ceeded from him, and they were all one in him. 
While those living in widely separated districts 
consulted together concerning matters of general 
concern, or united in cooperative efforts to accom- 
plish common tasks, there is not the slightest 
evidence that there was an external human or- 
ganization of the primitive church— either section- 
ally, nationally, or universally— centralized under 
a human headship of the administrative, legisla- 
tive, and judicial kind. Christ was the head of 
the general church, the head of all the local 
churches, the head of all the individual members 
of the church. In him, the source of their com- 
mon life, the primitive Christians were essentially 
one, and by his Spirit he operated in all hearts, in 
all the individual churches, and in all the ministers 
whose particular gifts and qualifications fitted 
them for divinely appointed oversight, both local 



90 The Church in History 

and general. By this means the primitive church 
was able to perform the work of Christ harmoni- 
ously and present to the world the grand spec- 
tacle of one body. 

Jesus taught the humble equality of the New 
Testament ministry. "All ye are brethren' ' 
First steps to (Matt. 23: 8). According to the 

ecciesiasticism N ew: Testament they were all of 

one general order or rank, although greatly di- 
versified in gifts and qualifications and the kind 
of work accomplished by each. The first example 
we have in Scripture of positional authority in the 
ministry as distinguished from the authority of 
the Holy Spirit, is the case of Diotrephes, of whom 
the apostle John wrote in his third epistle. We 
are also informed as to the nature of the authority 
exercised by him and the direction in which it led. 
It was human authority, something additional and 
foreign to the authority and government through 
the Holy Spirit, and the first example of church 
government by a single man. It proceeded from 
the evil root of pride and ambition, the love of 
' ' preeminence ' ' among the brethren; and this 
usurped power and authority led to a judicial 
process by which innocent brethren were /cast out 
of the church.' 

What a contrast this presents to that New Tes- 
tament picture of the divine ecclesia, exhibiting 
the highest form of human society known to his- 
tory, a body in which every member had his gift 



Rise of Ecclesiasticism 91 

and use for it. Among these many activities, over- 
sight and preaching had their place, but did not 
constitute the whole sum of Christian service. 
Paul describes Christ as the living head "from 
whom the whole body fitly joined together and 
compacted by that which every joint supplieth, ac- 
cording to the effectual ivorking in the measure of 
every part, maketh increase of the body unto the 
edifying of itself in love" (Ejph. 4: 16). The ob- 
ject of the ministerial function was "the perfect- 
ing of the saints, unto the work of ministering, 
unto the building up of the body of Christ" 
(verse 12, R. V.). 

In his early epistle to the Philippians, Paul 
makes reference to the officers that guided that 
church. He sends greetings "to all the saints in 
Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bish- 
ops and deacons" (Phil. 1:1). Poly carp, writ- 
ing to the same church in the next century, ad- 
dresses the "presbyters and deacons," showing 
that the apostolic order was still preserved there. 

In the Ignatian epistles, however, written early 
in the second century, there appears positional 
Bishops vs. authority of a new order. In 

presbyters place f t]ie New Testament 

standard of a plurality of elders, or bishops, joint- 
ly teaching and guiding the local church, we find 
recognition of an office which was superior to that 
of the presbyters and to whose incumbents alone 
the term "bishop" was applied. A few extracts 



92 The Church in History 

from his writings will make clear this recognition 
of a threefold order of the ministry— bishops, 
elders, and deacons. "Wherefore, it is fitting 
that ye should run together in accordance with the 
will of your bishop, which thing also ye do. For 
your justly renowned presbytery, worthy of God, 
is fitted exactly to the bishop as the strings are to 
the harp" (To the Ephesians, chap. 4). "He is 
subject to the bishop as to the grace of God, and 
to the presbytery as to the will of Jesus Christ" 
(To the Magnesians, chap. 2). And again, in the 
same epistle he says, "I exhort you to study to 
do all things with a divine harmony, while your 
bishop presides in the place of God, and your 
presbytery in the place of the assembly of the 
apostles" (chap. 6). "In like manner, let all 
reverence the deacons as the appointment of Je- 
sus Christ, and the bishop as Jesus Christ, who is 
the Son of the Father, and the presbyters as the 
Sanhedrin of God, and assembly of the apostles. 
Apart from these there is no church" (To the 
Trallians, chap. 3). To the Smyrnaeans he writes: 
' ' See that ye all follow the bishop, even as Jesus 
Christ does the Father. . . . Let no man do any- 
thing connected with the church without the bish- 
op" (chap. 8). "It is not lawful without the 
bishop either to baptize or to celebrate a love- 
feast; but whatsoever he shall approve of, that 
is also pleasing to God" (chap. 8). "It is well to 
reverence both God and the bishop. He who hon- 



Rise of Ecclesiasticism 93 

ors the bishop has been honored of God; but he 
who does anything without the knowledge of the 
bishop, does [in reality] serve the devil" 
(chap. 9). 

That this early recognition of a superior order 
of ministers was a distinct innovation is also 
shown from the literature of that period. In the 
Shepherd of Hernias, dating from the first part of 
the second century, elders and presbyters are dis- 
tinctly named but no bishop in contrast therewith. 
In the so-called "Teaching of the Twelve Apos- 
tles, ' ' also dating from the first part of the second 
century, bishops and deacons only are named as 
teachers and leaders of the church, showing that 
the original signification of the term "bishop" is 
here retained. Clement of Rome, in his first epis- 
tle to the Corinthians, speaks of the ministry as 
an institution of the apostles, but he mentions, 
nevertheless, only a twofold order— elders and 
deacons, presbyters and deacons, or bishops and 
deacons. The same classification is made in the 
second epistle of Clement to the Corinthians, a 
work which is generally ascribed to another 
author; so also in the epistle of Polycarp to the 
Philippians. 

The superior office of the bishop as distinguished 
from the local presbytery was, therefore, an in- 
novation, but in process of time its recognition be- 
came general. It is probable that in the local pres- 
bytery of the primitive church some one minister 



94 The Church in History 

excelled in special gifts and qualifications and con- 
sequently became a natural leader of his breth- 
innovation be- ren. Such leadership was of God, 
comes general because it was based on the au- 

thority proceeding from the Spirit of God. Such 
was the leadership which Paul held in a sphere of 
activity wider than a local congregation. But such 
was not positional authority or authority proceed- 
ing from a humanly created superior office and 
appointment thereto. It was of divine order. But 
this fact of distinguished leadership at first, 
doubtless furnished an excuse for the creation of 
a distinct office with carefully defined functions 
and limits of authority. The power of the bishop 
thus constituted advanced steadily. The churches 
of the cities where they were located extended their 
influences over smaller towns in the surrounding 
territory, and thus the city bishop came to rule 
over the elders of the lesser churches of a district. 
When the first step toward ecclesiasticism was 
definitely taken, by the recognition of official po- 
Deveiopment sition, authority, and government 

of hierarchy proceeding from human appoint- 

ment alone, the way was prepared for rapid prog- 
ress toward a highly organized system of man- 
rule. When the bishops met in provincial coun- 
cils, special deference was given those bishops 
from cities of great political importance, and they 
were exalted to the presidency of these councils, 
and this in time led to the recognition of a new 



Rise of Ecclesiasticism 95 

order of church officials— metropolitans. Later 
the metropolitans seemed too numerous for gen- 
eral utility in governmental functions; therefore 
general leadership gradually became centralized 
more and more in the bishops or metropolitans of 
certain of the most important cities, until they 
were finally given recognition as an order superior 
to that of metropolitans and were styled patri- 
archs. The first Council of Nice recognized this 
superior authority possessed by the patriarchates 
of Alexandria, Rome, and Antioch. The General 
Council of Constantinople placed the bishop of 
Constantinople in the same rank with the other 
three patriarchs, and the General Council of Chal- 
cedon exalted the see of Jerusalem to a similar 
dignity. The race for leadership between the 
patriarchates then began. On account of the Mos- 
lem invasion in the seventh century, Jerusalem, 
Alexandria, and Antioch fell away from their for- 
mer positions of greatness; therefore the rivalry 
for leadership was henceforth between the see of 
Rome and the bishop of Constantinople. Rome 
possessed many natural advantages, and conse- 
quently the bishop of Rome gained the greater 
prestige. The full-fledged papacy was the result. 
What produced that transition from the humble 
apostolic church of the brethren to the medieval 
church of the impious Hildebrand, who caused 
monarchs to tremble on their thrones? The 
change resulted from two particular causes, and 



!96 The Church in History 

it is highly essential to our purpose that we under- 
stand them. One was a misconception both of the 
Fundamental constitution of the true church it- 

causes self as designed by its Founder 

and of Christ's perpetual relationship to it; and 
the second was the imperialistic tendencies of that 
age to which the first error naturally exposed the 
church. 

It is unnecessary here to recite at length that 
conception of the primitive church which we have 
described in preceding chapters as the concrete 
expression of the kingdom of God. Such was the 
only true catholic, or universal, church. Its cath- 
olicity, however, was a moral and spiritual domin- 
ion exercised over men by the truth and Spirit of 
God, and was rendered visible only in the society 
of redeemed believers who held the truth and bore 
its appropriate fruits of righteousness. Being 
composed of the redeemed, it lovingly embraced 
within its membership the entire brotherhood of 
Christ. 

It is not too much to say that in the age in which 
Christianity first appeared it was difficult for men 
Two theories of to appreciate the conception of a 
catholicity purely moral and spiritual author- 

ity which was to be universal and perpetual. An- 
other idea of catholicity soon began to take pos- 
session of men's minds— the idea of a temporal 
and earthly organization of the kingdom of heav- 
en. In this conception of the church the bond of 



Rise of Ecclesiasticism 97 

union was not moral and spiritual— not the in- 
evitable result of divine life and love in the in- 
dividual members— but its pretended catholicity 
was to be secured by official, administrative, legis- 
lative, and judicial functions under a human head- 
ship and a self-perpetuating human magistracy. 
Such was the "mystery of iniquity," and in its 
developed form historically it was "the man of 
sin." The student of the New Testament can eas- 
ily see that the great Founder never intended that 
the boundary of his church should be determined 
by the administrative functions of a self -perpet- 
uating clerical corporation. But, on the other 
hand, the real church embraces the entire spiritual 
brotherhood, and out of this spiritual membership 
was developed by the Spirit of God the capacity 
and authority to teach, guide, and instruct. What 
a contrast these two conceptions present! 

Out of that worldly conception of the kingdom 
of God grew the Romish figment of the ' ' power 
The power of the keys. V According to this 

of the keys j^ ea? Christ constituted his minis- 

ters a sort of clerical, close corporation invested 
with direct authority over souls so that without 
their priestly mediation the kingdom of heaven 
is forever shut against men. The words "keys of 
the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 16:19) are evi- 
dently nothing more than a figurative expression 
indicating the moral influence in the kingdom 
which Peter in particular should wield : with pe* 



98 The Church in History 

culiar energy and efficiency. According to Matt. 
18 : 18 all the apostles and others were to exer- 
cise the same functions. In time, this expression 
denoting moral influence and usefulness in the 
service of Christ was tortured into an engine of 
despotism and made the means of spiritual ty- 
ranny over the consciences of millions of men and 
women. The corporation entrusted with such 
power durst not be resisted, and the church was 
identical with the hierarchy. 

But all of Rome's boasted catholicity, central- 
ized in an official, administrative corporation, is 
a chimera; for it is a fact that multitudes are ac- 
cepted of God as members of the divine family 
who are not identified with the hierarchy. The real 
catholic church, embracing the whole spiritual 
brotherhood, is therefore something else. 

But we have not yet reached in this discussion 
the tap-root of the evil tree of human ecclesiasti- 
Main source of cism. The fundamental error un- 
ecciesiasticism derlying all other errors on this 

subject, was the idea of an absent Christ. Not- 
withstanding the definite assertions of our Lord, 
u Iam with you alway, even unto the end of the 
world" and " Where two or three are gathered 
together in my name, there am I in the midst of 
them"— notwithstanding these reassuring prom- 
ises and the definite statements of the apostles 
which represent Christ as the ever-living and ever- 
acting head of the church, soon after the apostolic 



Rise of Ecclesiasticism 99 

period men lost the consciousness of the divine 
presence and began to think and to act as if Christ 
were indeed absent and would not return again for 
thousands of years. The presence of gigantic 
evils in the world with no apparent available 
means of redressing them, the dead weight of 
heathenism, and the disturbing influences of spec- 
ulative Oriental philosophies impressed upon the 
conscience of the world a despairing pessimism. 
In the midst of this trial there was a revival of 
the Platonic philosophy. The treatise of Plato 
that made the most profound impression upon the 
religious thought of the second century was the 
1 ' Timaeus, ' ' wherein the Deity is pictured as with- 
drawn from the world into a distant heaven sep- 
arated from all creation because of the evil with 
which matter is essentially connected. With God 
withdrawn from the world and Christ absent on 
a long journey, what was man to do? What was 
the hope of the world! 

Here ecclesiasticism found its real opportunity. 
Here human authority and government could be 
and was substituted for that spiritual dominion of 
Christ which gave life, form, and character to his 
church in primitive days. Here grew up that con- 
ception of the church as identical with the hier- 
archy whose power and authority was handed 
down by direct descent from the apostles and with- 
out whose priestly mediation there was no hope 
of salvation. Here was introduced the idea of 



100 The Church in History 

world-wide centralization of administrative, legis- 
lative, and judicial functions in a self -perpetuat- 
ing human headship. What a contrast! With 
Christ absent, the church an ark for the saving of 
the world, the truth a mere deposit made to the 
church for safe keeping to be handed down like a 
heirloom from generation to generation, and with 
a self-perpetuating priestly corporation as master 
of the destinies of the universe, we are prepared 
to understand the tyrannical rule of the church of 
Hildebrand and Innocent III. Traced to its source, 
this evil system is found to have sprung from that 
worldly conception of the kingdom of Christ which 
was substituted for the inconceivably grander con- 
ception of its Founder— a kingdom whose domin- 
ion is moral and spiritual under the personal 
supervision of Christ himself in all ages, and 
which embraces in its membership the entire spir- 
itual brotherhood. 



CHAPTER VII 
THE REFORMATION 

The age of popery's greatest glory was the 
world's midnight. I have not attempted to give 
an adequate description of that long reign of 
superstition and error preceding the reforma- 
tion of the sixteenth century. Such is the par- 
ticular province of ecclesiastical historians. I 
have simply confined the discussion to certain fea- 
tures essential to our present purpose. 

One point of importance I have endeavored to 
impress, namely, that the papal hierarchy, with all 
its attendant evils, corruption, superstition, and 
spiritual despotism, was the logical successor of 
the Ante-Nicene church ; that the ripened fruits of 
papalism were the direct results of the seeds of 
error planted in the second and third centuries. 
In view of this fact, one is led to inquire why true 
Christianity was not permanently buried in ob- 
livion beyond the possibility of resurrection, how 
any reformation could be possible. 

If Christianity were nothing more than a human 
religion, its reformation at such a period of decline 
and corruption would appear impossible. But 
Christianity was of divine origin. No matter how 
deeply it was buried under the rubbish of human 
tradition and superstition, no matter how grossly 
it was perverted and misunderstood by men, it 

101 



102 The Church in History 

still retained within itself the vital spark of divine 
life, the living principle of reformation. 

The secret of this reformatory power was Jesus 
Christ himself, the great ever-living head of the 
First cause church. Notwithstanding the de- 

of reformation c ij ne f f a ith and morals among 
those professing Christ, the wonderful character 
of Jesus still stood out with remarkable clearness 
and power in the records of the New Testament 
and could not but exert a tremendous influence in 
spite of prevailing standards; could not but shed 
rays of light and warmth in the midst of the sur- 
rounding darkness. Although men's ideas of the 
church became perverted, they could not entirely 
lose sight of the great Founder of the church, and 
they could not escape the conviction that the rec- 
ord of the founding of that church was given in 
the writings of the New Testament and that these 
writings were worthy of peculiar veneration. Per- 
haps this is the main reason why the learning of 
antiquity was chiefly preserved in monasteries and 
churches. There were ecclesiastics in all these 
ages who were acquainted with the Scriptures in 
Latin, and this acquaintance tended to preserve 
the knowledge of Jesus the Christ as portrayed in 
the original gospel records. The history of that 
epoch proves that there were men who loved the 
Lord more than priestly forms and ceremonial 
observances. John Wyclif, Jerome of Prague, 
John Huss, and others experienced that deeper 



The Reformation 103 

longing for personal relationship with Christ, and 
they proclaimed the gospel of Christ in a manner 
that could not be understood by the hierarchy of 
their times. 

Jesus was indeed the Christ of God. The light 
which shone forth from his presence could not be 
classical totally obscured, and the moral 

learning power and influence of his life and 

teaching could not be destroyed. The revival of 
classical learning restored the Greek Testament to 
western Europe and attracted the attention of stu- 
dents and learned men in all the monasteries and 
universities. While the hierarchy insisted on the 
exclusive right to interpret the Scriptures, the sim- 
ple reading of these wonderful records could not 
but create new conceptions of truth which no cler- 
ical prohibition could banish. Life was springing 
up in the midst of death. 

The Eeformation was the sincere effort of hon- 
est men to restore the truth of primitive Christian- 
Love for ity, that the world might again ex- 
truth perience the triumph of evangel- 
ical faith. To the everlasting credit of the Con- 
tinental reformers be it said that their motives 
were not selfish. They sought not for themselves 
freedom of thought and speech nor church power. 
Their immediate object was the restoration of the 
gospel; all other results were but secondary. 
Nothing is more certain than that at the first 
Luther had no idea of assailing the organization of 



104 The Chwrch in History 

the papal church. Most of the reformers at the 
first still believed most earnestly in the imperial 
government of the universal church; and they re- 
linquished this long-cherished ideal only when 
driven by force of circumstances which were at 
first unseen and unsuspected. Luther did not at 
first question the doctrine of the supremacy of the 
pope; but when he found that the reigning pope 
could not be reconciled with the principles of truth 
which he taught, Luther proposed to appeal the 
matters in question to a general council, notwith- 
standing the melancholy example, a century ear- 
lier, of the Council of Constance and the fate of 
John Huss and Jerome of Prague. 

The real occasion for the outbreak of the Ref- 
ormation was the papal traffic in indulgences, 
indulgence* Leo X had great need of money 

for the building of St. Peter's, and other under- 
takings, and in order to fill the coffers of the 
church he had recourse to the sale of indulgences. 
The power of dispensing these indulgences in Sax- 
ony in Germany was committed to a Dominican 
friar named Tetzel, a fanatical enthusiast who en- 
tertained the most extravagant notions concerning 
their efficacy in forgiving not only the sins already 
committed but even those which were contem- 
plated. Luther's soul burned with righteous in- 
dignation. Of what use was the doctrine that for- 
giveness of sin came by the death of Christ on 
the cross if any sinner could obtain it from an 



The Reformation 105 

emissary of the pope for a pecuniary considera- 
tion. Luther felt that this infamous traffic was 
making the Word of God of none effect. He there- 
fore drew up ninety-five theses against the doc- 
trine of indulgences and nailed them on the church- 
door at Wittenberg. The printing-press scattered 
copies of these theses everywhere, and soon the 
continent of Europe was in a blaze of controversy. 
Such, in short, was the beginning of the Reforma- 
tion and some of the causes leading thereto. 

The key-note of the reformers was, therefore, 
the gospel. The views of the reformers with re- 
Gospei stan- spect to truth were not altogether 

dard sought harmonious, and it is evident that 

some of them had much clearer conception of the 
gospel than had others. Nevertheless, their pri- 
mary purpose was the same. They were grad- 
ually forced to the conviction that Rome had made 
the faith of God of none effect by her traditions, 
errors, and superstitions, so much so as to make 
it practically unknown. It was the purpose of these 
heroic preachers to bring out these long-obscured 
truths and thus make them effectual in the saving 
of men. The main doctrine around which the Ref- 
ormation centered was justification by faith inde- 
pendent of human mediation. 

So far as the Reformation restored to the world 
right doctrine, it tended to correct the evils of that 
phase of the apostasy which we have character- 
ized as the corruption of evangelical faith. But it 



106 The Church in History 

did not remove that other evil characteristic of the 
apostasy, the parent of nearly all other evils— 
human ecclesiasticism. Viewed from one angle, 
that power appears to have been modified; but 
from another point of view, we can see that what 
was formerly an imperial system of centralized 
ecclesiastical control simply ended now in nation- 
ally centralized systems perpetuating the same 
principles. Thus, from the centralized dominion 
of the papal hierarchy there sprang the national, 
or state, churches in Switzerland, Germany, Hol- 
land, England, Sweden, and Scotland. 

We have already shown that development of 
ecclesiasticism which culminated in the papacy. 
Lingering influ- From the primitive autonomy of 
ence of Rome the local churches, there came the 

centralization and consolidation of churches sec- 
tionally under a human headship with administra- 
tive functions, then provincial or national central- 
ization, then finally the primacy of Rome over 
them all. The reason for this is evident. When 
the moral and spiritual dominion of Christ's king- 
dom was lost to view or could not be appreciated, 
the wrong conception of the church as a world- 
empire naturally took possession of men's minds; 
for in that age vast, centralized, imperial power 
was the ideal government. When, however, the 
political empire fell, and men witnessed the ruin 
of their political ideal, they sought to realize the 
same universal conception in a world-church 



The Reformation 107 

possessing imperial powers under the pope of 
Rome. 

At the period of the Reformation the Christian 
world had been in the grip of this world-church 
National idea for more than a thousand 

churches years. As already stated, the re- 

formers, whose minds were directed chiefly toward 
the restoration of evangelical doctrine, had at first 
no idea of breaking away from this standard. 
Evidently they had no conception of that moral 
and spiritual dominion of Christ by which alone 
he governs his church— a ' kingdom that is not of 
this world. ' They therefore abandoned the world- 
church idea reluctantly, and not until the opposi- 
tion of the hierarchy drove them to separation. 
When the issue was clearly drawn, they of course 
decided to obey God rather than man. Having no 
idea of the real spiritual character of the divine 
ecclesia, they had to content themselves with that 
national church unity which was still in their 
power. 

The clergy, who had long been accustomed to 
the imperial tie, believed that a national headship 
was now necessary. The governments of Europe 
at that time were for the most part absolute mon- 
archies, about the only limits to the sovereign 
power of these kings being the control which the 
pope exercised over the ecclesiastical affairs of 
the nations. From this control the Reformation 
liberated them. Therefore they eagerly took upon 



108 The Church in History 

themselves the oversight of the national churches, 
and thus came into existence the church-and- state 
system of Protestant Europe. To a great extent 
the power that the imperial head of the church 
lost was acquired by the national heads. 

All this seemed perfectly consistent to the re- 
formers. They felt the necessity of lodging some- 
where that power of human control which had been 
formerly exercised by the pope. As one writer 
has said, i ' They could not understand that Chris- 
tianity could prosper without a strongly organ- 
ized and governed church or without the presence 
of a strong and vigorous hand ready at all times to 
repress dissent and enforce uniformity of faith 
and worship.' ' The time of absolute religious 
freedom was not yet. 

As might be expected, numerous modifications 
of the principles and usages of the papal church 
Ecciesiasticism occurred in the change from im- 
perpetuated perial control to the state-church 

system. This diversity took place in the different 
countries in accordance either with prevailing con- 
ditions and sentiments or with the whims and ca- 
prices of the reigning sovereigns. While some re- 
tained the episcopate, others greatly modified it 
or rejected it altogether. In forms of worship, 
ritual, and other things numerous changes were 
also made. But notwithstanding the diversity in 
forms of worship and in church polity, in two re- 
spects there was perfect agreement among all the 



The Reformation 109 

Reformed churches— two things brought over from 
the papacy— namely, first, the idea of a self-per- 
petuating clerical caste possessing in their cor- 
porate capacity legislative and judicial authority 
over the church; and second, the centralization 
under a human headship of administrative func- 
tions, instead of that local autonomy which pre- 
vailed in the congregations of apostolic times. The 
doctrine of the " power of the keys," a power 
wielded by a clerical corporation with authority 
to prescribe the very manner and form of wor- 
shiping God and to require men to comply there- 
with or else exclude them from gospel privileges. 
That doctrine was accepted without question. It 
was the same power in principle as that which was 
wielded so terribly by Gregory VII in the papal 
church of the eleventh century. 



CHAPTER VIII 

MODERN SECTS 

Picture a keen observer living in the middle of 
the first century of our era. He travels about 
a mental from place to place studying the 

picture development, nature, and fruits 

of the recently established religious phenomenon 
— Christianity. He observes the purity of its doc- 
trines and the high moral standard exemplified in 
the lives of its adherents, and he inquires par- 
ticularly concerning the secret of that mysterious 
bond which unites in one body and in one fellow- 
ship, sympathy, and love the entire society of be- 
lievers in Jesus. He departs. After the lapse of 
long ages he returns near the beginning of the 
twentieth century, and lo, what is it that meets his 
astonished vision? The mournful spectacle of a 
divided Christendom; of rival sects compassing 
land and sea to make proselytes; of the spiritual 
alienation of those who, in reality, belong to the 
one divine family ; of waste and inefficiency in 
methods of evangelical effort; not to mention the 
error, pride, and worldliness inherent in the gi- 
gantic ecclesiastical systems known as denomina- 
tional churches. What a change! 

It is useless to minimize the evils inherent in 
the sect system. Intelligent men the world over 
need not the services of an eye-specialist to see 

111 



112 The Church in History 

clearly that there is something wrong with modern 
Christendom; that the sect system does not rep- 
inherent resent the standard of primitive 

evUs Christianity, but that in reality 

the sect principle misrepresents the apostolic ideal 
as portrayed in the New Testament. We may as 
well face the facts honestly and seek for a remedy 
for this disease that has so long marred the beauty 
and corrupted the nature of the true Christian 
system. 

I cheerfully admit that God has worked among 
his people in all ages in accordance with the de- 
gree of light and truth which they possessed. But 
I can not forget that the greatest revivals of evan- 
gelical religion have either taken place in spite of 
the sect system or among those who had just made 
their escape from the bondage of ecclesiastical 
despotism and had not as yet become very deeply 
affected by the sectarian principle. To what 
source, then, are we to trace sects 1 What is their 
cause? 

A large proportion of the Christian world would 
reply without hesitation that the existence of the 
Alleged causes modern sects is due to these two 
of sect-making . things: the principle of religious 
liberty and the limitations of human knowledge. 
Such an answer reveals a superficial view of the 
whole subject. Eeligious liberty among Christians 
existed in the primitive church before the rise of 
ecclesiastical tyranny over the conscience, and the 



Modern Sects 113 

masses of men in those days were at least as lim- 
ited in knowledge as are we. Still, the church was 
one ; it was not divided into rival and hostile sects. 
There was no need in those days of constructing 
churches to conform to the limited capacity of 
men 's minds ; for there was already in existence 
a church sufficiently catholic in its nature and 
spirit to accommodate all classes of minds, because 
there was in operation the power of the Spirit of 
God which revealed truth to men and thus en- 
lightened their minds and brought them into har- 
mony with the divine standard. Concerning the 
principle of religious liberty, I shall have more to 
say hereafter. 

The natural limitations of human knowledge 
may account for difference of opinion, but more 
Human than this is required to account 

limitations f or ^ le en tire system of organized 

sects such as we see it today. Millions of evan- 
gelical Christians possessing spiritual affinity and 
holding opinions no more divergent than often ex- 
ist between members of the same sect, are, never- 
theless, divided into independent, rival parties. 
Something else originated and now perpetuates 
that barrier between them. 

When differences are fundamental and there- 
fore unavoidable, they will become more pro- 
nounced under test than at any other time. If, 
during an epidemic, a physician believes that the 
method of treatment employed by another doctor 



114 The Church in History 

is actually killing the patients, his opposition to 
such a method will then be stronger than at any 
other time. As long as that method is simply a 
theory, it is harmless. Only when put into prac- 
tise does it become dangerous. 

It is a matter of common knowledge that evan- 
gelical Christians are not driven further apart but 
are really driven together whenever Christianity 
itself is placed under any special trial, as, for ex- 
ample, in foreign missionary work in heathen 
lands. And even in our own country, whenever a 
great local interest is taken in the work of soul- 
saving there is a corresponding tendency for 
Christians of different sects to ignore their differ- 
ences of opinion and get together as if they be- 
lieved in a common Lord over all and were all 
members of the same family. Thus, whenever 
the high tide of evangelism comes in, the land- 
marks of sects are scarcely visible ; but whenever 
the tide goes out, behold, the ancient boundaries 
of sects appear as before. This fact proves that 
there are no fundamental reasons why sects should 
exist. It proves that in reality sects are a barrier 
to the true work of Christ ; hence are, in their es- 
sential nature, antichristian. What, then, is the 
real cause of sects? 

Traced to the original source, modern sects, we 
find, originated where the papacy originated— in 
the corruption of Christianity in the early cen- 
turies. All came from the same roots of error. 



Modern Sects 115 

However modified and diversified in external forn 
and in doctrinal teaching they may now be, they 
True causes exhibit in their ecclesiastical con- 

of sects stitntions a foreign character de- 

rived from the foreign stock from which they 
sprang. Into this system there have been en- 
grafted many noble scions of truth from the ' ' good 
olive-tree, ' ' and these have produced commend- 
able fruits of righteousness. But we are here con- 
cerned with pointing out those fundamental char- 
acteristics of the system that are foreign to the 
true church of Jesus Christ. 

The first cause to which I call attention is an 
erroneous conception of the church itself. At the 
Erroneous ideas cost of some repetition I must 
of church point out that in the beginning 

the church was the universal company of the re- 
deemed, the whole spiritual brotherhood, whether 
isolated members of Christ or those worshiping in 
local assemblies distributed over the earth. The 
tie which united these members of Christ in one 
body was their common faith in our Lord Jesus 
Christ and the life of the Spirit. But as in those 
times vast centralized imperial power was a divin- 
ity that every one worshiped, it was impossible 
properly to appreciate the moral and spiritual do- 
minion of Christ by which alone he designed to 
rule his church ; therefore men soon proceeded to 
pattern the church of Christ after the political gov- 
ernment, first by grouping together under one 



116 The Chwrch in History 

administrative human headship the congregations 
of a province or section of the empire, and then 
finally uniting these different provinces under one 
administrative headship at Eome. From that day 
until the present time the church-idea that has 
generally prevailed in Christendom has been an 
organization fashioned according to the kingdoms 
of this world; a human organization in which the 
administrative functions of government are cen- 
tralized under some form of human headship; a 
unity that is not moral and spiritual, but official 
and administrative, as well as legislative and 
judicial. 

Coincident with the creation of foreign ideals 
concerning church societies wlas the formation of 
Wrong standard of a foreign idea of church-member- 
church-membership gbjp an( j church-relationship. In 
the beginning, as we have shown, the church was 
simply the divine family. Therefore salvation 
through Christ was its sole condition of member- 
ship. "And the Lord added to them day by day 
those that were being saved" (Acts 2: 47, E. V.). 
And as the local congregation was but the con- 
crete expression of the ideals of the general body 
or church, that membership in Christ which made 
men members of the general body, made them, by 
a moral and spiritual law, members of all the other 
members of Christ, and therefore fixed their local 
relationship: they belonged by divine right with 
whichever company of believers they happened to 



Modern Sects 117 

be associated. Nothing more than simple recog- 
nition of what God had done for them and the 
according to them of the local rights and privi- 
leges that naturally belonged to them was neces- 
sary on the part of a local congregation to make 
the actual union complete. 

The wrong conception of the constitution of the 
church necessarily required another standard of 
church-membership. When church came to sig- 
nify merely a group of congregations consolidated 
under a centralized human headship possessing 
administrative, legislative, and judicial functions 
(so organized as to distinguish it from all other 
organized groups or congregations), simple mem- 
bership in Christ was insufficient to mark the con- 
vert with the stamp of denominational individ- 
uality. Salvation itself made no one a member of 
a church fashioned according to the kingdoms of 
this world. Consequently another standard of 
membership was necessary, a standard which re- 
quired acceptance of and conformity to the self- 
made rules and regulations of that foreign society 
called a church. And when these earth-born insti- 
tutions became identified in the public mind with 
the real church of Christ and membership in them 
became confused with membership in the true 
church of God, the natural result was that mil- 
lions complied, in a formal manner at least, with 
the conditions of the counterfeit church member- 
ship who never knew what it meant to be vitally 



118 The Church in History 

joined to Christ. In this we see the "evil" fruit 
which grew on that tree of error. The multitudes 
that have been by this means deceived with the 
thought that they were Christians, only to be lost 
at last, will not be known until that awful day of 
final reckoning. 

The formation of creeds tends to create divi- 
sion and to perpetuate division. Csesar's maxim 
Divisive nature illustrates their history: "Sol- 
of the creeds diers will raise money, and money 

will make soldiers." So creeds will make sects, 
and sects will make creeds. "A creed or confes- 
sion of faith is an ecclesiastical document— the 
mind and will of some synod or council possessing 
authority— as a term of communion by wlhich per- 
sons and opinions are to be tested, approbated or 
reprobated. ' ' The sect churches are built on their 
creeds, although, of course, they affirm that their 
creeds are built on the Bible. In this case, how- 
ever, it is usually apparent to the careful observer 
that the Bible is that part of the foundation which 
is buried out of sight below the ground. The 
creed is the real test applied to persons, the meas- 
ure by which their opinions are judged. It is the 
creed upon which the sect is built that gives the 
denominational character and distinctiveness. 

It is a fact of history that the primary purpose 
of the historical creeds was not to unite men but 
to separate them. The Nicene Creed was made to 
exclude the Arians. The Decrees of the Council 



Modern Sects 119 

of Trent were framed to exclude Protestants ; the 
Westminster Confession, to exclude Arminians; 
and the Episcopal Articles, to exclude Catholics 
and Independents. To rally around a creed framed 
by human authority and make it the basis of union 
is but to teach a system— a sect system; but to 
rally around the person of Jesus Christ and make 
him the supreme object of our faith, hope, and 
love is to contend for what the Bible terms the 
faith, the truth, the gospel. This is infinitely bet- 
ter than any document proceeding from Nicea, 
Trent, Dort, Augsburg, or Westminster. 

Another cause, both for the origin of the sect 
system and its perpetuation, is the assumed 
Power of " power of the keys' ' which has 

the keys been carried over from the Church 

of Rome. The idea that the administrative rule 
and government of the church of Christ has been, 
by divine decree, centralized in a self-perpetuat- 
ing clerical caste with authority to legislate for 
the church and then to enforce its decisions by 
judicial procedure, is foreign to the primitive 
church as recorded in the New Testament. It is 
a product of Papalism, and yet it has been, in its 
essential characteristics, transferred directly to 
the sects of Protestantism. The New Testament 
recognizes no such human positional authority. 
It recognizes only that divine authority which 
operates through God's chosen ministers and help- 
ers by virtue of the Spirit-bestowed gifts and 



120 The Church in History 

qualifications. The only governmental authority 
exercised by the New Testament ministers was in 
cooperation with Christ, the visible head, by put- 
ting forth, in accordance wlith the Spirit's gifts 
and qualifications, some portion of that moral 
power by which alone Christ governs. 

The idea that to a clerical order has been com- 
mitted the exclusive guardianship of the church, 
with full power to admit to or exclude from the 
worship and service of God all except those who 
come by way of their priestly mediation, is the 
basest assumption. It is a violation of the rights 
of individual conscience. Yet just such power has 
been and still is being exerted as a means of en- 
forcing acquiescence in matters of opinion and sub- 
mission to customs and practises which every 
unprejudiced man knows, or can soon see, is no 
part of the New Testament teaching and require- 
ments. What a weapon has this ecclesiastical as- 
sumption been! One always ready for use. It 
makes no difference whether it is wielded by a 
Methodist conference, an Episcopal judicatory, a 
Presbyterian synod, or a Catholic pope, it is all 
the same in principle— "the power of the keys." 

This assumed corporate power of the clergy has 
been one of the fundamental causes of sect-mak- 
Lack of reiig- ing. When a general clerical 

ious freedom body assumes the right in its cor- 

porate capacity to prescribe rules of either faith 
or practise, written or unwritten, and then to en- 



Modern Sects 121 

force them by judicial action, it is a direct viola- 
tion of the Newl Testament standard, and of the 
rights of individual consciences. It was because 
of this lordly, unscriptural rule that many sincere 
men of God have been forced to sever their con- 
nection with the older sects in order to find a place 
where a greater degree of light and truth could 
be experienced and proclaimed. In such cases it 
was not religious liberty that caused the forma- 
tion of new movements and new sects, but the lack 
of religious liberty. 

That " power of the keys," making and then 
enforcing the standards of creeds, has done vio- 
lence to the conscience of both the clergy and the 
laity. Conscienceless persons subscribe to the 
creed without any particular hesitation, but the 
truly conscientious suffer the greatest embarrass- 
ment. They must either refuse altogether and 
withdraw from all connection, or else subscribe 
with a mental reservation amounting practically 
to hypocrisy. 

This inflexible character of the sect institution 
has been a most fruitful cause for the production 
inflexible of new sects. No matter how spir- 

character itual the movement at its begin- 

ning, when its leaders were not longing for church 
power but were earnestly preaching the Word of 
the Lord as it came unto them, as soon as the sect 
machinery was thoroughly organized and was set 
in motion the inevitable tendency has been to 



122 The Church in History 

throw around the movement a wall of creedal and 
ecclesiastical exchisiveness which shut out other 
true people of God; and then began a process of 
crystalization which ever afterwards precluded the 
unfolding of new truth. It is a well-known fact 
that the high tide of truth-discovery in every re- 
ligious movement in Protestantism has been at the 
time of its beginning. A fixed law of immobility 
has ever afterwards prevailed. The reason is 
clear: whenever men grasp the reins of govern- 
ment and assume those prerogatives which belong 
to God alone, the rule of the Spirit ends. The 
unfolding of new truths by the operation of the 
Spirit is impossible within the limits of the old 
order where human ecclesiasticism reigns. But 
truth can not be permanently suppressed. If it 
can not find room for development within the exist- 
ing order of things, God will raise up men who 
will, independently, proclaim the Word of the 
Lord. This he has done repeatedly, only to have 
the new movements end in the same manner— in 
a rule of human ecclesiasticism. 

Human ecclesiasticism has always been the 
greatest barrier to the free spiritual development 
of the w?ork of Christ. According to that relic of 
the papal church, authority and rule is vested in 
the clerical corporation and is by them conferred 
upon other individuals by the act of ordination. 
How different the standard of the Word! In the 
Old Testament times the office of prophet did not 



Modern Sects 123 

come in the priestly line, but on whomsoever the 
spirit of prophecy descended — whether upon 
Amos, the herdsman, or David, the king— he spake 
as he was moved by the Holy Ghost. There has 
never been a time under the divine economy when 
any man to whom the Word of the Lord came was 
not divinely authorized to proclaim his message 
wherever he could get a hearing, whether in syna- 
gog or temple, or out under the broad canopy of 
heaven. 



CHAPTER IX 
THE CHUECH OF THE FUTUEE 

What about the church of the future? Is the 
modern sect system the ultimate goal of Christian 
attainment in this world"? While the sects contain 
much truth and many of the people of God, their 
ecclesiastical constitutions are foreign to the true 
church of Jesus Christ, and it is inconceivable that 
the great Founder would make no provision either 
in his Word or in his plan for the correction of the 
evils which have grown up around the Christian 
system during the dark ages of the world and 
which have in a great measure perverted the gos- 
pel itself and lessened its wholesome efficiency as 
the universal remedy for human ills. 

Since no sect can make good a claim to being 
exclusively the church of God, a general feeling 
of toleration at least (if not in all cases of sincere 
respect) has come to prevail respecting the dif- 
ferent denominational churches. Men have come 
to look upon the sects as a mere matter of fact, not 
to be seriously questioned, and we are supposed to 
cover the whole scene with the mantle of patience 
and charity and make the best of a bad situation. 

Dr. J. M. Sturtevant has expressed this general 
attitude so well that I shall quote his own words : 
"It has long been true in this country that no 
Protestant can freely expose the errors and super- 

125 



126 The Church in History 

stitions of the papal church, especially from the 
pulpit, without incurring the charge of intoler- 
The Protest- ance, bigotry, and uncharitable- 

ant truce ness. Religious controversy itself 

has been placed under the ban, as in its own nat- 
ture uncharitable. When once any religious opin- 
ion has organized itself into a sect, it is thought 
to have acquired a sacredness which, in the name 
of Christian charity and in the interest of the tran- 
quility of the community, defends it from any 
open assault. We have come into the condition 
in which Rome was when she had extended her 
conquests from the British Isles to the Euphrates 
and had transferred to Rome the divinities of all 
the countries conquered. People of every nation- 
ality might worship their own divinities, but must 
respectfully tolerate the worship of every other. 
In this way only could religious conflict be avoided. 
The chief reason why Christianity was persecuted 
was that from its very nature it could accept no 
such truce. It is either a universal religion or no 
religion at all. It is, like all other systems which 
claim to be the true, in its own nature exclusive. ' ' 
It is because of its universal character that truth 
can accept no such truce as has been declared by 
the modern sects. Truth is exclusive, and hence 
can make no compromises. The church of God is 
universal or it is no church at all. The whole 
truth concerning the church question must and will 
come out. The times demand it; the people of 



The Church of the Future 127 

God demand it ; the Spirit of God demands it ; and, 
as we shall show, the Scriptures declare it. 

It is very evident that the people of God are not 
satisfied with the present sectarian situation. 
A new awak- Everywhere there is manifested a 

ening restlessness and uneasiness re- 

specting the arbitrary lines of sect which separate 
between those who have a recognized spiritual 
affinity— recognized except formally by the eccle- 
siastical powers that be. The Christian conscious- 
ness is becoming awakened. Men are coming to 
see that Christianity is to be measured, not by sect 
lines, but by that broader, Scriptural rule of the 
divine family embracing all true disciples of Jesus 
—those who possess his life and bear the appro- 
priate fruits of righteousness. This awakening, 
with its logical consequences, is what I have termed 
THE LAST REFORMATION. It will give form 
and character to the Church of the Future. 

Sectarianism still has its defenders, however. 
In the midst of the rising tide of spiritual fel- 
Apoiogies lowship and love, there are those 

for sects w ] 10 bring forward a few sickly 

apologies for sects, apologies which generally 
impress the earnest student of the Scriptures with 
the thought that the apologist has a hard case to 
make out. The excuse most commonly advanced 
is that the sect system is a useful arrangement 
for accommodating the variety of tastes and feel- 
ings found among Christian people. It is assumed 



128 The Chwrch in History 

that some are natural-born Episcopalians, with an 
innate fondness for formal liturgies and ecclesias- 
tical vestments, and that others are so constituted 
by nature as to require certain other particular 
forms of Worship. 

If there is any such fundamental demand in 
human nature for a variety of sects, as different 
Diversity of taste climates are required to suit dif- 
and culture ferent orders of life on our planet, 

it is strange indeed that the apostles overlooked 
such an important point and failed to provide for 
it. Why was not the primitive church constructed 
so as to bring into existence at once a variety of 
human sects to accommodate the different classes 
of people then existing? Prom the modern point 
of view they had an excellent excuse for starting 
with at least two churches— one for the Jews and 
another for the Gentiles ; and if these had not been 
sufficient, before the end of their personal minis- 
try they could have brought into existence a whole 
brood of sects. 

Now, the student of the Scriptures knows that 
the apostles proceeded exactly in the opposite 
direction. They labored earnestly to bring all 
classes into love and fellowship in one body. This 
course was not in accordance with the wisdom of 
the world, but the twentieth century is beginning 
to see that it was "the wisdom of God." 

The reason why men have a liking for formal 
liturgies, stately ceremonies, and ecclesiastical 



The Church of the Future 129 

vestments is because of environment. They have 
been trained that way. Here again we see the 
natural tendency of sects to make sectarians and 
thus reproduce their kind. When particular forms 
and ceremonies, which are not required by Scrip- 
ture, are enforced upon men by a self -constituted, 
self-perpetuating ecclesiastical authority, the in- 
evitable result is to stamp the same principles 
upon succeeding generations and thus perpetuate 
the sect system exercising such authority. 

In a final effort to lessen the odium attaching to 
what is now widely recognized as an evil, some 
Th© sect assert that the cause of mischief 

s P irit is the sect spirit. This statement 

contains truth, but it does not tell the whole truth. 
One of the worst evils of human slavery was the 
extreme tyranny- which some slave-masters exer- 
cised. But the real fact was that the system itself 
tended to convert good men and women into ty- 
rants. The special manifestation of evil was both 
effect and cause. It was the natural tendency of 
the system to make tyrants, and tyrants perpet- 
uated the system. So also with sectarianism. 
Though all can realize a theoretical difference be- 
tween the sect spirit and simple denominational- 
ism, yet the very tendency of the system itself is 
to create party interests and to introduce party 
rivalries, which naturally foster the sect spirit. 
Without that devotion to party and party interests 
—a devotion almost equal to their devotion to the 



130 The Chwrch in History 

gospel itself— sects would perish. If sect-members 
should become so universal in their love and sym- 
pathy as to devote themselves to the ivork of Christ 
alone— forgetting party interests— sects would die. 
The sect spirit is, therefore, essential to the main- 
tenance of the life and individuality of the sect 
body. 

The remedy for sectarianism is not a return 
to imperialism. The world-church idea as ex- 
what is the emplified in the papal church is 

remedy? n0 ^ the goal of Christianity. Such 

might hold dominion over men in the barbaric ages 
of the world, but its universal swiay has ceased. 
The Inquisition will never be reestablished. The 
unity of the church is not to be found in an im- 
perial hierarchy. 

Nor is Christian unity to be obtained by ad- 
herence to the historic creeds. These documents 
may express many noble sentiments respecting 
Christ and his truth, and they may express the 
fullest knowledge of the truth known in the days 
when they were written. But knowledge of the 
truth is progressive, while creeds are stationary. 
No human document, therefore, can serve as a per- 
manent basis upon which to build our faith. And 
then, too, we have seen that creeds are in their 
very nature divisive. Hence they can not be made 
the basis for the realization of unity. 

Nor is the unity of the church to be found in 
some particular form of exclusive church polity, 



The Church of the Future 131 

as Episcopalianism, Presbyterianism, or Congre- 
gationalism. We have conclusively proved that 
that conception of the church patterned after the 
forms of political government, in which govern- 
ment and authority are vested inherently and ex- 
clusively in human hands, is foreign to the orig- 
inal conception of the church as it existed in the 
minds of its Founder and his apostles. The gov- 
ernment of the New Testament church is a the- 
ocracy. Christ is head. He rules through his 
Holy Spirit by moral suasion and spiritual in- 
fluence, and the ministers and helpers whom he 
calls and qualifies share in that oversight and re- 
sponsibility to the same extent that they are able 
to wield the same moral and spiritual power. This 
is the only church authority and government rec- 
ognized in the New Testament. 

Here I shall digress long enough to point out 
by way of contrast the true form of divine govern- 
Tbe perpetual ment. Every one is familiar with 

theocracy ^he theocratic government of 

Israel under the Old Testament dispensation. God 
ruled. He who carefully reads the New Testament 
can not fail to discern the same type of govern- 
ment in the church before the rise of human eccle- 
siasticism. The first preachers of the gospel spoke 
with an authority not derived from a human 
source. When Peter and John were threatened 
before the Council and commanded not to speak or 
teach in the name of Jesus Christ, they gave the 



132 The Church in History 

sublime answer : ' ' Whether it be right in the sight 
of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, 
judge ye. For we can not but speak the things 
which we have seen and heard' ' (Acts 4: 19, 20). 
The same principle stands out in bold relief in 
the experience of Paul. Although that great apos- 
tle was forward to cooperate with other apostles 
and ministers of Christ, one can not fail to see 
that his whole career exemplified the principle of 
theocracy. He "was not disobedient unto the 
heavenly vision.' ' 

Permit me to call attention particularly to an 
important parallelism between the government of 
An important Israel under the theocracy and 

parallelism t j le government of the New Tes- 

tament church before the rise of ecclesiasticism. 
God led his people out of Egypt by Moses and 
Joshua. These men are a type of Christ, who 
leads his people. After the Israelites were settled 
in Canaan, they had no central government, but 
each locality or city was autonomous, having its 
local judges or elders. In a time of crisis God 
raised up a judge to lead the people in the neces- 
sary cooperative efforts to preserve or regain their 
liberties. Their miseries Were always the result 
of their own sins, not a failure of the divine form 
of government. Their appointing a king and thus 
setting up a centralized human government was 
called rejecting God as ruler. And this is exactly 
parallel with what ecclesiasticism has done and is 



The Church of the Future 133 

doing with the same results. God's government 
of the church is set aside and rejected. 

Nor will an organic union of all the sects solve 
the problem of unity. In the first place, the ten- 
Not church dency of such a union is toward 

federation imperialism, the creation on the 

federation plan of another world-church. In the 
second place, such a federation would strengthen 
rather than lessen the authority of human rule, 
while the compromises necessary to make such a 
project possible would lessen in the same degree 
that freedom of the Spirit by which alone the full 
gospel can be given to the world. And in the third 
place, such a federation would not be the church 
of God, for the very framework on which it would 
rest, human ecclesiasticism, is foreign to the orig- 
inal conception of the church. It would be only a 
human arrangement patterned after the model of 
a world-empire. And for another reason such 
wtould not be the church. The divine ekhlesia in- 
cludes in its membership the whole family of God. 
Thousands of men and women who are united to 
Christ and in fellowship with all the saved are not 
members of the formally organized sects. There- 
fore the union of all such churches in one federa- 
tion would not include the whole family. 

Thus, the remedy for sects is not church federa- 
tion, nor a return to the historic creeds, nor the 
adoption of one of the exclusive forms of church 
polity; neither is it an attempt to hide the sin of 



134 The Church in History 

the obnoxious sect system by covering it with a 
mantle of charity and patience— as a sort of neces- 
Back to the sary evil. What, then, is the real 

Bible standard remedy for sects 1 It is the abso- 

lute rejection of every foreign element that has 
crept into the Christian system and the return to 
that primitive conception of the church as made 
up of the entire brotherhood of Christ, organized 
and controlled by the Holy Spirit. For true unity 
we must turn from hierarchies and apostolical suc- 
cessions and priestly corporations and church 
synods and human creeds to THE CHRIST who 
alone is the head of the church. 

Such a movement requires a moral revolution 
with respect to the attitude of God's people to- 
True ward membership in sects. It re- 
membership quires the obliteration of sect lines 
and the recognition of no other bond of union than 
that of a common brotherhood through union with 
Christ. Divine life secured through repentance 
and faith is the sole condition of membership in 
the church of Christ, and this relationship is main- 
tained by obedience to the commands of Christ 
and consistent Christian conduct. "If we walk 
in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellow- 
ship one with another, and the blood of Jesus 
Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin" (1 John 
1:7). 

Such a movement and such a standard of church 
relationship require the elimination of all ideas of 



The Church of the Future 135 

priestly ecclesiasticism. The Christ of the New 
Testament church is not an absent Christ. He has 
Elimination of never resigned his position as 
ecclesiasticism head of the church and vested the 

governmental authority in a self-perpetuating 
clerical caste. His government is theocratic. He 
administers it himself through his Holy Spirit. 
Hence no men or set of men can confer any power 
or authority whatsoever upon any individual to 
act for Christ. Christ calls his own assistants, 
and any man unto whom the Word of the Lord 
comes is divinely authorized to proclaim His mes- 
sage. The only sphere of human operation re- 
specting this administration of divine government 
is simple recognition of what God has done, and 
this recognition in the last analysis belongs to the 
whole body of God's people. The basis of every 
man's authority and responsibility is, therefore, 
not human appointment or official position, but the 
divine call, gifts, and qualifications, that he pos- 
sesses. If, for example, he is called to apostolic 
work and endowed with gifts and qualifications 
fitting him for such service, he has apostolic au- 
thority and responsibility, and there is nothing for 
other ministers or Christians to do but to recog- 
nize what God has done. "Now hath God set the 
members every one of them in the body, as it hath 
pleased him" (1 Cor. 12:18). Such, in short, is 
the divine organization and government. 

The realization of this grand ideal of the restora- 



136 The Church in History 

tion of the New Testament standard of church 
membership, government, and authority, is impos- 
What of the sible within the sect system. For 

future? the sec t s ^ t urn all the people of 

God loose from subjection to every foreign yoke 
and make them free to associate without restric- 
tion with all the saved of God, would be an act of 
suicide. Only by division and by holding the grasp 
of ecclesiastical rule can sects survive. But he is 
blind to the signs of the times who can not see that 
the grip of ecclesiasticism is slipping and the 
bonds of true catholicity becoming strengthened. 
The true people of God are becoming more and 
more dissatisfied with present conditions and are 
beginning to think in terms of a universal Chris- 
tianity. The rising tide of evangelism among such 
is already beginning to overflow the lines of sect. 
What may we expect in the future 1 

Things can not continue as they have been in the 
ecclesiastical world. A sweeping reformation is 
imperative and imminent. In fact, the vanguard 
of this great movement is already visible. "What 
will the future bring forth? Will the sects them- 
selves fade away and gradually become dissolved? 
or will the powers that rule in the ecclesiastical 
world finally set themselves against the spirit of 
catholicity and thus practically force the true peo- 
ple of God to ignore absolutely all sectarian lines 
and step out on the broad platform of truth and 
universality, united in Christ alone, knowing no 



The Church of the Future 137 

head but Christ and no creed but his truth? Who 
can tell! 

In the present work I have given a brief his- 
torical sketch of the leading ecclesiastical events, 
A fundamental showing the apostasy as it ex- 

difference isted under two phases, the cor- 

ruption of evangelical faith and the reign of ec- 
clesiasticism. I have also shown that the reforma- 
tions of Protestantism have tended to the correc- 
tion of that first phase pertaining to doctrine, but 
that a complete reformation requires the elimina- 
tion of ecclesiasticism. Hence what I have termed 
the Last Eeformation, if it is to be the last, not 
only must include the restoration of pure doctrinal 
truth but must also restore the real church of the 
New Testament. So far as true doctrine is con- 
cerned, such a reformation will differ from other 
evangelical movements in degree only— it must 
ultimately comprehend the whole truth. But the 
fundamental difference between the reformation 
herein considered and all other preceding reforma- 
tions is that it strikes the death-blow to the very 
root of error that produced the sect system— hu- 
man ecclesiasticism— and substitutes therefor the 
administrative authority of the Holy Spirit work- 
ing in varying degrees in all the members of Christ 
throughout the world. The last reformation there- 
fore must differ from all others, not in degree only, 
but also in kind. 

God alone understands the future. During the 



138 The Chiurch in History 

ages past he has not left his own work without the 
witness of prophecy. We may rest assured, there- 
The witness fore, that in the prophecy of the 

of prophecy divine Word he has given us an 

outline of the history of his church. So I shall 
ask the reader to patiently follow me through a 
brief sketch of ecclesiastical events as described 
in the prophecies of the Revelation. Such an ex- 
amination will throw a large amount of additional 
light on the subjects I have already treated his- 
torically, and will also give us a divinely drawn 
picture of the church of the future. Such will en- 
able us to understand better the real character and 
extent of THE LAST REFORMATION. 



PART III 
The Church in Prophecy 



CHAPTER X 

INTERPRETATION OF PROPHETIC SYMBOLS 

The value of prophecy in establishing the relig- 
ion of the Bible as the religion of God has been 
value of generally recognized. Its value, 

prophecy however, is not limited to the 

proof of the divinity of Biblical truth which it 
furnishes : it serves a definite and most important 
purpose in the life and work of God's believing 
children in all ages. By it we are better able to 
understand God's own plan and purposes in hu- 
man history, and by it we are made conscious of 
our own whereabouts along the pathway of time. 
The movements of God in the history of the past 
that were predicted by earlier prophets have re- 
ceived their chief inspiration from the conscious 
knowledge the leaders had of the prophetic char- 
acter of their work. It was Daniel's study of 
prophecy that stirred his soul for the restoration 
of Israel to the favor of God and to their own land 
(Dan. 9:2), and at the same time opened his own 
heart for the wonderful revelation concerning fu- 
ture events. It was the consciousness of prophetic 
fulfilment that gave John the Baptist his inspira- 
tion for work (John 1 : 23) ; and in establishing the 
truths of the gospel of Christ, the apostles placed 
leading emphasis on the fact that these things were 
written in the law and in the prophets. 

141 



142 The Church in Prophecy 

The love and care that Christ had for his peo- 
ple did not cease in the beginning of the gospel 
dispensation ; for he gave the promise, l ' I am with 
you alway, even unto the end of the world. ' ' It is 
altogether reasonable, then, that we should receive 
• 'the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave 
unto him, to show unto his servants things which 
must shortly come to pass" (Rev. 1:1). Through 
the varying conditions of time, Christ leads his 
people on to certain victory. 

Since the mission of the church was to be world- 
wide and perpetual, it is fitting that the church 
should be described prophetically in order that we 
might have definite information concerning the 
operations of the divine hand in working out the 
great problem of the church's destiny after the 
close of the sacred canon. 

Before proceeding with our discussion of those 
prophecies which concern the church, let us pause 
Prophetic and consider briefly the character 

symbols f S y m bols. The prophecy of the 

Scriptures is presented to us in two distinct forms 
—direct statements in the ordinary language of 
life and in symbolic representations, but far the 
greater part is expressed in symbols, as in the book 
of Daniel and in the Revelation of John. Without 
an understanding of the nature of symbols we 
can not get a proper understanding of such 
prophecies. 

Spoken or written language is a very compli- 



Interpretation of Prophetic Symbols 143 

cated affair, but it is in reality an arbitrary ar- 
rangement. The name that we attach to a partic- 
ular object could as well be given to a totally dif- 
ferent object instead if we only agreed to make 
the change. For this reason spoken language is 
variable. Changes are constantly taking place. 
The language of Bible symbols, on the other hand, 
is not subject to the law of change, as we shall 
see; it is not based on arbitrary arrangement or 
mere convenience, but its foundational principles 
exist in the very nature of things. 

Webster defines symbol as follows: "The sign 
or representation of any moral thing by the images 
or properties of natural things. Thus, a lion is 
the symbol of courage; the lamb is the symbol of 
meekness or patience." Home, in his Introduc- 
tion to the Study of the Bible, says : " By symbols 
we mean certain representative marks, rather than 
express pictures; or, if pictures, such as were at 
the time characters, and besides presenting to the 
eye the resemblance of a particular object, sug- 
gested a general idea to the mind, as when a horn 
was made to denote strength, an eye and scepter, 
majesty, and in numberless such instances, where 
the picture was not drawn to express merely the 
thing itself, but something else, which was or was 
conceived to be, analogous to it." 

According to these definitions, the main idea of 
a symbol is the representation of an object or qual- 
ity, not by exhibition of itself, but by another ob- 



144 The Church in Prophecy 

ject or character analogous to it. Nor are we lim- 
ited in the use of symbols to the exhibition of moral 
subjects alone. Any object may be symbolized, 
provided a corresponding object can be found. 

Analogy, then, is the fundamental law of sym- 
bols. This being true, it is clear that symbols must 
Analogy the be definitely applied. They are 

basic law no £ arbitrary. There is no reason 

why we could not call a book a table, and a table 
it would be, provided we agreed universally to 
adopt that designation ; but we violate nature if we 
attempt to represent the quiet, peaceful, gentle 
disposition of a child by a lion or a tiger, or a 
cruel, vindictive, tyrannical disposition by a lamb. 
A polluted harlot may represent an apostate 
church, but not the true church. A proper cor- 
respondence of character and quality must be ob- 
served. We must follow nature strictly. And this 
is the law of symbols. 

Symbols are drawn from different departments 
--from angelic life, human life, animal life, and 
inanimate creation. But in every case there is in 
the selection and use of the symbol a proper cor- 
respondence of character and quality. 

The deciding factor in the original selection of 
a symbolic object is the nature of the thing to be 
Twofold object symbolized. In the field of Bible 
of symbols prophecy the general design is in 

the main twofold— the representation (1) of the 
affairs of the church and (2) of the political his- 



Interpretation of Prophetic Symbols 145 

tory of those nations and kingdoms which were to 
exert an important influence on the life and devel- 
opment of the church. It is evident that in the 
divine estimation the church and its welfare is of 
infinitely greater importance than the affairs of 
nations and kingdoms. Therefore we may rea- 
sonably expect that, according to the nature of 
symbolic language, symbols designed to represent 
the church will be. found to be of the most ex- 
alted type, whereas those representing political 
things will be found to be selected from an inferior 
department. In accordance with this fundamental 
classification we shall find that symbols drawn 
from angelic life and human life invariably refer 
to the department of ecclesiastical affairs, while 
those drawn from animal life or inanimate nature 
represent political things. The only apparent ex- 
ception to this rule is that certain inanimate ob- 
jects formerly consecrated to the service of God 
and thus associated with the department of the 
church are sometimes used to represent spiritual 
things, because the analogy is obvious. Bearing in 
mind this fundamental distinction between the 
representation of things political and things ec- 
clesiastical, we are prepared to understand other 
shades of distinction. 

Nations may be peaceful or tyrannical and op- 
pressive, and churches may be good or apostate; 
but the exact character can be analogously rep- 
resented by the symbolic object. A vicious wild 



146 The Church in Prophecy 

beast stamping and devouring would naturally rep- 
resent a cruel, tyrannical government ; and a good 
woman represents the true church, while a vile 
harlot represents the church apostate. But what- 
ever the nature of the symbol, whether beast, lo- 
cust, lion, horse, temple, angel, or man, we may 
know at once from the nature of the symbol where 
to look for its fulfilment. This important guide 
in the study of prophetic truth— a guide overlooked 
by most of the commentators— relieves us of much 
of the uncertainty hitherto connected with the 
subject. 

Since, as we have seen, symbolic language is 
based on analogy, it is evident that there are some 
objects whose nature forbids their symbolization, 
there being no corresponding object in existence. 
God can not be symbolized. ' ' To whom then will 
ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare 
unto him" (Isa. 40:18). There may be certain 
symbols connected with his person setting forth 
the dignity, majesty, and eternal splendor of his 
name, but he himself appears unrepresented by 
another. The same is true also of the person of 
Jesus, our Eedeemer, although in this case we 
must distinguish between the Christ incarnate and 
Jesus in his essential divinity. Considered as in- 
carnate—both God and man— the human aspect 
of his character as manifested in his sacrificial 
death may be analogously represented as a Lamb 
slain. But considered in his essential divinity, he 



Interpretation of Prophetic Symbols 147 

can not be symbolically represented. Therefore, 
whenever the glorified Christ appears on the sym- 
bolic stage, he always appears in his own person 
proclaiming his own name. "I am he that liveth, 
and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for ever- 
more ' ' (Rev. 1 : 18 ) . < ' He hath on his vesture and 
on his thigh a name written, King of kings, and 
Lord of lords. ' ' 

In Rev. 6 : 9 the souls of the martyrs are rep- 
resented as crying unto God for the avenging of 
their blood on them that dwell on the earth. There 
is no object analogous to a disembodied spirit. It 
is easy to give them an arbitrary name. There- 
fore they simply appear under their own appro- 
priate titles as ' ' the souls of them that were slain. ' ' 

Whenever we attach a literal significance to a 
symbolic object, we immediately destroy its char- 
acter as a symbol. This should not be done. With 
the exception of those instances where the nature 
of an object forbids its symbolization and where 
the description must therefore of necessity be lit- 
eral, we should always look for the true fulfil- 
ment, not in that department from which the sym- 
bol is drawn, but in another department— that to 
which the symbol by analogy refers us. 

The limits and object of the present work pre- 
clude an exhaustive treatment of prophecy in gen- 
eral. Our immediate purpose is to set forth par- 
ticularly those prophecies of the divine Word 
which clearly portray and outline the character 



148 The Church in Prophecy 

of a world-wide religious movement in the last 
days. To do this effectually, however, we must 
Field of pres- briefly consider those prophecies 

ent inquiry which describe the principal ec- 

clesiastical events in history which form the basis 
of, or lead up to, the Last Eeformation. The sub- 
ject as outlined in the prophecies and as based on 
the facts of history, naturally divides into four 
parts, or epochs, as follows: 

I The Apostolic Period 

II The Medieval Period 

III Era of Modern Sects 

IV The Last Eeformation 

For the sake of brevity, we shall, as far as pos- 
sible, exclude from our present inquiry those 
prophecies pertaining to civil and political af- 
fairs, retaining only such as have an important 
bearing on the church subject. 



CHAPTER XI 
THE APOSTOLIC PEEIOD 

The twelfth chapter of Revelation introduces 
an important line of prophetic truth respecting the 
The star-crowned church, beginning with these 
woman words: "And there appeared a 

great wonder in heaven; a wioman clothed with 
the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon 
her head a crown of twelve stars : and she being 
with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to 
be deliyered. ,, "And she brought forth a man 
child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of 
iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and 
to his throne. And the woman fled into the wil- 
derness, where she hath a place prepared of God, 
that they should feed her there a thousand two 
hundred and threescore days' ' (verses 1, 2, 5, 6). 

As we have already stated and as will be made 
very clear hereafter, symbols drawn from human 
life are used to represent ecclesiastical affairs. 
Therefore in the symbol now before us we have a 
representation of the church, and from the gen- 
eral description given we infer that it must be the 
pure church of God, for the brightest luminaries 
of heaven are gathered around her and no evil 
thing is said concerning her. That this woman is 
the special object of God's care and concern is 
further shown by the fact that when she fled into 

149 



150 The Church in Prophecy 

the wilderness, she had ' ' a place prepared of God, 
that they should feed her there. ' ' That this inter- 
pretation of the woman is correct is also shown 
by other texts in Revelation. 

In chapter 21 : 9 an angel talking with John 
said, "Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, 
the Lamb 's wife. - ' And again, in chapter 19 : 7, 
where the church is undoubtedly referred to, a 
great multitude is represented as saying, "Let us 
be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him: for the 
marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath 
made herself ready. ' ' In the seventeenth chapter 
the church apostate is without doubt described by 
the symbol of a vile, polluted harlot. 

The pure woman of chapter 12, then, represents 
the apostolic church in all its beauty and glory. 
She is represented as clothed with the sun, a strik- 
ing emblem of the light of the glorious gospel of 
Christ which shone forth from the early church. 
The moon under her feet is generally understood 
to designate the typical worship of the Jewish age, 
which was a shadow of things to come but which 
now stands eclipsed in the superior light and glory 
of the new and better dispensation. The moon is 
the lesser light and derives its illumination from 
the sun ; so also the Mosaic period was the moon- 
light age of the church and reflected a part of the 
gospel which, at a later time, was to be revealed in 
all its glory with the rise of the "Sun of right- 
eousness." 



The Apostolic Period 151 

The crown of twelve stars adorning the diadem 
of the church is a fit representation of the twelve 
apostles of the Lamb, they being in one important 
sense permanent fixtures in the church. Accord- 
ing to chapter 1 : 20, stars are sometimes used to 
represent Christian ministers, the analogy as 
light-givers being obvious. "They that be wise 
shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; 
and they that turn many to righteousness as the 
stars forever and ever" (Dan. 12:3). 

The prominent position occupied by this wom- 
an and the light which shone forth from the sun 
with which she was clothed stand out in marked 
contrast with the later description given of her 
flight into and seclusion in the wilderness. The 
latter stage of her experience I shall describe 
further on, but a brief allusion to it will make her 
first appearance more impressive. The wilderness 
describes the apostasy which was to envelop the 
woman and thus obscure her light. Therefore her 
first appearance as in the planetary heavens pre- 
sents a sublime description of her dignity and ex- 
cellence in the morning time of the gospel era. Her 
light shone upon all and her glory could be seen 
3y all. She presents that fundamentally distinct 
characteristic of the true church of God— univer- 
sality ; not a mere isolated star shedding its feeble 
rays in competition with the other orbs of night ; 
but a cluster of bright, shining stars and the very 
sun itself. The light of the apostolic church was, 



152 The Church in Prophecy 

therefore, all-inclusive in the sense of reflecting all 
the truth. It is essential to our proper under- 
standing of the symbols that follow that we com- 
prehend the true character of the church of God 
—the bride of Christ. 

The next object to claim our attention in the 
vision under consideration is that of the man child 
The man child to whom the woman is said to give 

birth. A variety of interpretations of this man 
child have been given. Some say that it refers to 
Jesus Christ, but this application is objectionable 
for different reasons. First, Jesus is everywhere 
represented as the founder of the church, not as 
its child. Second, true analogy is lacking: there 
is nothing about a mere child to proclaim divinity. 
Others have identified the child with the Emperor 
Constantine; but here again the consistent use of 
symbolic language is overlooked ; for if the woman, 
the mother, represents the church, then the child 
born of her can not represent a single, definite in- 
dividual, but rather a collection of individuals or 
another phase of the church itself. In other words, 
if the one single symbol represents a particular 
individual, the other must also represent an in- 
dividual. Thus, if the man child is identified with 
Christ, the mother should signify the Virgin Mary ; 
or if Constantine is intended, then Helena, mother 
of Constantine, should be represented by the 
woman. 

It is clear, however, that the woman signifies, 



The Apostolic Period 153 

not a single individual, but the church. Therefore 
the child born of her must simply signify another 
phase of the church but the same family. By 
means of this twofold symbol— involving the 
closest relationship known— is set forth the fruit- 
fulness and perpetuity of the church. There is 
also another reason why a double symbol should 
be, selected to set forth the true church— to rep- 
resent two distinct phases of the church's life and 
history, which, in the nature of the case, could not 
be represented under a single symbol. According 
to the description given, the man child was caught 
up to God and to his throne, while the woman re- 
mained on earth and fled into the wilderness, where 
she had a place prepared of God for 1,260 days. 
The man child, then, represents that phase of the 
church which was caught up from the earth but 
ascended to heaven and there lived and reigned 
with Christ; while the woman represents that 
phase of the church which continued on earth and 
fled into the wilderness during the period of the 
great apostasy. 

There is also direct Scriptural testimony justi- 
fying this interpretation of the man child. In 
Isaiah 66 we have a sublime description of Zion, 
God's church and people, represented as a woman, 
a mother. The context shows that this scripture is 
a prophetic allusion to the church of the New Tes- 
tament age. "Before she travailed, she brought 
forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of 



154 The Church in Prophecy 

a man child. Who hath heard such a thing? who 
hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made 
to bring forth in one day f or shall a nation be born 
at once! for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought 
forth her children" (verses 7, 8). Here Zion is 
represented as a mother bringing forth a man 
child, but this is interpreted to be a nation born at 
once. According to Heb. 12 : 22, 23, this Zion, or 
Sion, represents the New; Testament church. There 
is no doubt, then, that the man child of Revelation 
12 refers to the great host of new converts with 
which the early church was blessed. The scrip- 
ture in Isaiah just cited met its fulfilment on the 
day of Pentecost and shortly afterwards, when 
thousands were brought into the church in a day. 
The apostle Paul also refers to the great com- 
pany of Jews and Gentiles who were reconciled 
to God as constituting "one new man" in Christ 
(Eph. 2:15). 

The next object in the vision to which our at- 
tention is directed is introduced in these words: 
The great "And there appeared another 

red dragon wonder in heaven; and behold a 

great red dragon, having seven heads and ten 
horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his 
tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, 
and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon 
stood before the woman which was ready to be 
delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it 
was born" (Rev. 12:3,4). 



The Apostolic Period 155 

The dragon is the name given by the ancients 
to a fabulous monster represented as a large 
winged lizard or serpent. It was regarded as the 
enemy of mankind, and its overthrow is made to 
figure among the greatest exploits of the gods and 
heroes of heathen mythology. The symbol, being 
drawn from the natural world, directs us by 
analogy to persecuting, tyrannical government. 
We must not suppose that this is a literal descrip- 
tion of Beelzebub; for there is no proof that the 
personal devil has any such appearance as this 
monster with seven heads and ten horns, and a 
tail dragging after him a third part of the stars 
of heaven. 

In the second verse of the next chapter John 
describes the rise of a beast that also had seven 
heads and ten horns; "and the dragon gave him 
his power, and his seat, and great authority.' ' The 
fact that the dragon was succeeded by the beast, 
who reigned in his stead, is proof that the dragon 
does not signify the personal devil ; for, as far as 
we know, the archfiend has never resigned his po- 
sition, but is still doing his infernal business at 
the same stand. 

In many respects the beast is similar to the 
dragon. In the seventeenth chapter the beast ap- 
pears again, and the explanation given by the 
angel will enable us to understand the significa- 
tion both of the dragon and of the beast. "The 
beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall 



156 The Church in Prophecy 

ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into per- 
dition . . . and here is the mind which hath wis- 
dom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on 
which the woman sitteth. And there are seven 
kings : five are fallen, and one is, and the other is 
not yet come; and when he cometh, he must con- 
tinue a short space. . . . And the ten horns which 
thou sawest are ten kings, which have received 
no kingdom as yet ; but receive power as kings one 
hour with the beast" (verses 8-12). 

With these facts before us and with our under- 
standing of the nature of symbols, it is easy to 
identify the dragon and the beast as the Roman 
Empire, first under the pagan form and later 
under the papal form. Although the beast was 
to succeed the dragon, yet in identifying the heads 
of the beast, the angel informed John that in his 
day five had already fallen, while one then existed 
and the other was future. This proves, then, that 
the same heads served both for the dragon and 
for the beast, thus establishing their essential iden- 
tity. And it is a fact well known that there is 
no essential difference between Eome pagan and 
Rome papal. The seven heads of Rome, therefore, 
signify the distinct forms of government that ruled 
successively in the empire, for they are repre- 
sented, not as simultaneous powers, but as consec- 
utive powers. The five that had already fallen 
when John received the vision were the regal 
power, the consular, the decemvirate, the military 



The Apostolic Period 157 

tribunes, and the triumvirate. "One is"— the im- 
perial. The seventh, or future one, was the pa- 
triciate. 

It is natural that the pagan Roman Empire 
should be represented as a dragon. In the proph- 
ecy of Daniel the Grecian kingdom is represented 
by a he goat for no other apparent reason than 
the fact that the goat was the national military 
standard of the Grecian monarchy. So also the 
dragon was the principal military standard of the 
Romans next to the eagle. Arian, an early writer, 
mentions the fact that dragons were used as mil- 
itary standards by the Romans. The dragon of 
Revelation 12 is also described as a red dragon. 
The dragon standards of the Romans were painted 
red. Ammianus Marcellinus mentions "the pur- 
ple standard of the dragon.' ' By this fabulous 
beast described as a great red dragon, then, is 
symbolically represented the heathen Roman Em- 
pire. 

The ten horns, or kingdoms, which had not yet 
risen when the revelation was given, were the ten 
minor kingdoms that grew out of the Roman Em- 
pire during its decline and fall. These are as fol- 
lows: 1. Anglo-Saxons; 2. Burgundians; 3. 
Franks; 4. Huns; 5. Heruli; 6. Lombards; 7. Os- 
trogoths; 8. Suevi; 9. Vandals; 10. Visigoths. 

The dragon is described with the horns, although 
they were not yet in existence and did not arise 
until about the time the dragon became the beast. 



158 The Church in Prophecy 

He is also represented with seven heads, although 
he really possessed only one head at a time and 
five had already fallen and one was yet to come. 
He is described with all the heads and horns he had 
ever had or was to have. The reason why the 
same general power is described under two forms 
—first as the dragon and later as the beast— will 
appear more clearly hereafter. 

The fact that the dragon was called the devil 
and Satan has led some to think that the personal 
devil himself is meant. The foregoing explana- 
tion concerning the heads and the horns shows 
conclusively, however, that by the dragon is meant 
the pagan Eoman Empire, and not Beelzebub. The 
Hebrews applied the term " Satan" to an adver- 
sary, or opposer, as can be seen by examining in 
the original the following and many other texts: 
Num. 22: 22; 1 Sam. 29: 4; 2 Sam. 19: 22; 1 Kings 
11 : 25. The term is also thus used in the New Tes- 
tament, signifying merely an opposer. "But he 
turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, 
Satan" (Matt. 16:23). "The things which the 
Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils" (1 Cor. 
10:20). Paganism was the great opposer of 
Christianity; hence was a Satan to it, while the 
apostle Paul denominated its religious rites as 
devil-worship. We must remember that the text 
does not say that the dragon was the devil and 
Satan, but that he was called the devil and Satan. 
He partook of the nature and character of the per 



The Apostolic Period 159 

sonal devil, was the chief instrument through which 
the devil worked, and was therefore called by his 
name. 

The tail of this dragon ' ' drew the third part of 
the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth. ' ' 
This is not a literal description, for the fixed or 
planetary stars never fall to the earth. If they 
did, they would destroy it. The stars are doubt- 
less employed as symbols set in the ecclesiastical 
firmament, giving light amid the surrounding 
darkness. Light is so often used as the representa- 
tive of gospel truth that the application of the 
stars to prominent characters in the church is ob- 
vious. Jesus is the Sun of Righteousness, and his 
ministers are bright, shining stars— light-givers. 
The ministers of the seven churches of Asia Minor 
are represented as stars (chap. 1:20). "They 
that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the 
firmament ; and they that turn many to righteous- 
ness as the stars forever and ever" (Dan. 12: 3). 
The casting down of the third part of the stars, 
therefore, signifies the warfare which the dragon 
power waged against the early church, in which 
conflict the ministers of Christ became the marked 
objects of heathen wrath. 

"And there was war in heaven: Michael and his 
angels fought against the dragon ; and the dragon 
fought and his angels, and prevailed not ; neither 
was their place found any more in heaven. And 
the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent 



160 The Church in Prophecy 

called the Devil and Satan, which deceiveth the 
whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and 
The wax in his angels were cast out with him. 

heaven And I heard a loud voice saying 

in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, 
and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his 
Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast 
down, which accused them before our God day and 
night. And they overcame him by the blood of the 
Lamb, and by the word of their testimony ; and 
they loved not their lives unto the death" (Bev 
12:7-11). 

The symbolic scene suddenly changes, and in- 
stead of the Woman and the man child, Michael 
and his angels appear in conflict with the dragon 
and his angels. This change of symbols indicates 
the introduction of a different phase of thought. 
From the nature of the symbols we can quickly 
ascertain the reason for this change. The woman 
represents the true church and is a proper sym- 
bol of its unity, beauty, purity, and glory. But 
there is another phase of the church which can not 
be represented symbolically by a woman— the mil- 
itant phase. The church is also an aggressive, 
fighting power, ready to wage warfare against the 
powers of evil. We would not expect to see the 
church left helpless like a woman before a great 
dragon. We would naturally expect to see divine 
aid extended, and this is done by the change 
of symbolic imagery, Michael (Christ) and his 



The Apostolic Period 161 

angels appearing to wage war against the 
dragon. 

The battle between Michael and the dragon sig- 
nifies the great conflict which took place between 
primitive Christianity and the powers of pagan- 
ism enthroned in the Eoman Empire. It will be 
observed that this scripture has no reference to 
the origin of Satan himself, as some people have 
supposed ; for the conflict was fought in the Chris- 
tion dispensation, as is proved by the weapons 
which the followers of Michael employed— " And 
they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and 
by the word of their testimony; and they loved 
not their lives unto the death. ' ' Under this figure, 
the followers of Michael are represented as vic- 
tors, the dragon being cast down to the earth, or 
overthrown. It is a fact of history that primitive 
Christianity succeeded in its fight against pagan- 
ism. 

In the nineteenth chapter of Acts we have an 
account of the effect Christianity had on heathen- 
ism. Paul went to Ephesus, which at that time 
was the chief capital of proconsular Asia, a lead- 
ing mart of heathen idolatry, and in which was sit- 
uated one of the seven wonders of the ancient 
world— the temple of Diana. The preaching of 
the gospel produced such a mighty effect that the 
followers of Diana, fearing lest their magnificent 
system of worship should be destroyed, stirred up 
the people in a tumult until the city was in an up- 



162 The Church in Prophecy 

roar, a great mob shouting, " Great is Diana of 
the Ephesians." 

Before the end of the first century, according to 
the testimony of the younger Pliny, the temples of 
the gods of Asia Minor were almost forsaken. 
Well has Butler said, ' ' The final victory of Chris- 
tianity over heathenism and Judaism, and the 
mightiest empire of the ancient world, a victory 
gained without physical force, by the moral power 
of faith and perseverance, of faith and love, is one 
of the strongest evidences of the divinity and in- 
destructible life of our holy religion.' ' 

It is a fact worthy of mention that the early 
Christians regarded the Roman Empire as a great 
enemy to the truth, and described it as a dragon, 
the victory of Christianity over heathenism being 
represented by the overthrow of the dragon. Con- 
stantine and others of his time describe these 
events thus. Says Bishop Newton, "Moreover, 
a picture of Constantine was set up over the pal- 
ace gate, with a cross over his head, and under 
his feet the great enemy of mankind (who perse- 
cuted the church by means of impious tyrants), in 
the form of a dragon, transfixed with a dart 
through the midst of its body, and falling head- 
long into the depth of the sea. ' ' 

Verse 11 seems to indicate that many of the fol- 
lowers of Christ lost their lives in this conflict, and 
this, doubtless is parallel with the statement that 
the man child was caught up to God and to his 



The Apostolic Period 163 

throne. It may also imply that in the conflict the 
dragon employed the arm of civil power in his op- 
position to the truth. But Christianity increased 
notwithstanding the violent opposition. During 
the reign of the Emperor Septimus Severus, about 
the close of the second century, when a violent 
persecution of the Christians occurred, Tertullian, 
the first of the great Latin Fathers, wrote a nota- 
ble apology for the Christian faith, addressed to 
the Emperor. In this important document this 
noble defender of Christianity sets forth so clearly 
the nature of the conflict between truth and error 
that I shall make rather a lengthy quotation from 
his writing. 

"Rulers of the Roman Empire/' he begins, 
"you surely can not forbid the truth to reach you 
by the secret pathway of a noiseless book. She 
knows that she is but a sojourner on the earth, and 
as a stranger finds enemies ; and more, her origin, 
her dwelling-place, her hope, her rewards, her 
honors, are above. One thing, meanwhile, she anx- 
iously desires of earthly rulers— not to be con- 
demned unknown. What harm can it do to give 
her a hearing? . . . The outcry is that the state 
is filled with Christians ; that they are in the fields, 
in the citadels, in the islands. The lament is, as 
for some calamity, that both sexes, every age and 
condition, even high rank, are passing over to the 
Christian faith. 

"The outcry is a confession and an argument 



164 The Church in Prophecy 

for our cause; for we are a people of yesterday, 
and yet we have filled every place belonging to you 
—cities, islands, castles, towns, assemblies, your 
very camp, your tribes, companies, palace, senate, 
forum. We leave to you your temples alone. We 
can count your armies: our numbers in a single 
province will be greater. We have it in our power, 
without arms and without rebellion, to fight against 
you with the weapon of a simple divorce. We can 
leave you to wage your wars alone. If such a 
multitude should withdraw into some remote cor- 
ner of the world, you would doubtless tremble at 
your own solitude, and ask, 'Of whom are we the 
governors I ■ 

"It is a human right that every man should 
worship according to his own convictions ... a 
forced religion is no religion at all. . . . Men say 
that the Christians are the cause of every public 
disaster. If the Tiber rises as high as the city 
walls, if the Nile does not rise over the fields, if 
the heavens give no rain, if there be an earthquake, 
if a famine or pestilence, straightway they cry, 
Away with the Christians to the lions. . . . But 
go zealously on, ye good governors, you will stand 
higher with the people if you kill us, torture us, 
condemn us, grind us to the dust; your injustice 
is the proof that we are innocent. God permits us 
to suffer. Your cruelty avails you nothing. . . . 
The oftener you mow us down, the more in num- 
ber wie grow ; the blood of Christians is seed. What 



The Apostolic Period 165 

you call our obstinacy is an instructor. For who 
that sees it does not inquire for what we suffer! 
Who that inquires does not embrace our doctrines? 
Who that embraces them is not ready to give his 
blood for the fulness of God's grace V 9 

Under the figure of Michael and his angels, the 
early church is represented as victorious in cast- 
The woman's ing down the powers of heathen- 

fligllt ism ; but under the symbol of the 

woman, the church is apparently represented as 
defeated ; for after the casting down of the dragon 
it is said, "To the woman were given two wings 
of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilder- 
ness, into her place, where she is nourished for 
a time, and times, and half a time, from the face 
of the serpent" (verse 14). This agrees with 
verse 6, where it is said that ' 6 the woman fled into 
the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared 
of God, that they should feed her there a thousand 
two hundred and three score days." 

The flight of the woman into an obscure place in 
the wilderness presents a striking contrast with 
her first appearance in the planetary heavens, 
where she was * ' clothed with the sun, and the moon 
under her feet, and upon her head a crown of 
twelve stars. 9 9 By this sudden change in the sym- 
bolic representation of the woman 's position is set 
forth the ecclesiastical change that took place in 
the early part of the church's history. First she 
appears as the glorious bride of Christ adorned in 



16G • * The Church in Prophecy 

beauty and splendor and radiating the light of his 
glorious gospel. She was then "the light of the 
world." Later we find a great change taking 
place. Instead of the church representing all the 
truth to the world, we find the beginning of a great 
apostasy, which in time was to eclipse and well 
nigh extinguish the light and glory of primitive 
Christianity by substituting in its place the dark- 
ness of the apostasy born in ages of ignorance and 
superstition. 

That such a change in the history of the true 
church should occur was predicted by Christ and 
the apostles. Jesus said, "And because iniquity 
shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold" 
(Matt. 24: 12). Peter said, "There shall be false 
teachers among you, who privily shall bring in 
damnable heresies" (2 Pet, 2:1). Paul said, 
"Also of your own selves shall men arise, speak- 
ing perverse things, to draw away disciples after 
them" (Acts 20:30). To the Thessalonians who 
had been troubled with the report that the second 
coming of Christ was then near at hand, Paul said, 
' ' Let no man deceive you by any means : for that 
day shall not come, except there come a falling 
away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the 
son of perdition ; who opposeth and exalte th him- 
self above all that is called God, or that is wor- 
shiped ; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of 
God, and showing himself that he is God. . . . For 
the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only 



The Apostolic Period 167 

he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out 
of the way. And then shall that Wicked be re- 
vealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the 
spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the 
brightness of his coming " (2 Thess. 2:3-8). 

The reader can scarcely consider these texts 
without perceiving clearly that change which came 
over the primitive church resulting in a transition 
from her glorious state of innocent beauty to the 
full-grown papacy— the " mystery of iniquity/ ' 



CHAPTER XII 

THE MEDIEVAL PEEIOD 

The fact of history pertaining to the true church 
which Paul described as a "falling away" is rep- 
resented by the Revelator by the symbol of the 
woman fleeing into the wilderness. The other fact 
mentioned by Paul pertaining to the rise and de- 
velopment of the man of sin is represented in the 
visions of the Revelation as follows: 

"And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw 
a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads 
The ten-homed and ten horns, and upon his horns 
leopard-beast ten cr owns, and upon his heads 

the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I 
saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as 
the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of 
a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and 
his seat, and great authority. And I saw one of 
his heads as it were wounded to death; and his 
deadly wound was healed : and all the world won- 
dered after the beast. And they worshiped the 
dragon which gave power unto the beast : and they 
worshiped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the 
beast? who is able to make war with him? and 
there was given unto him a mouth speaking great 
things and blasphemies ; and power was given unto 
him to continue forty and two months. And he 
opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to 

169 



170 The Church in Prophecy 

blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them 
that dwell in heaven. And it was given unto him 
to make war with the saints, and to overcome 
them : and power was given him over all kindreds, 
and tongues, and nations. And all that dwell upon 
the earth shall worship him, whose names are not 
written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from 
the foundation of the world. If any man have an 
ear, let him hear. He that leadeth into captivity 
shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the 
sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the 
patience and the faith of the saint s" (Eev. 13: 
1-10). 

From the nature of the symbol employed, we 
should naturally infer that a persecuting, tyran- 
nical kingdom or empire is meant. That such an 
application of the term i l beast, ' ' when used in con- 
nection with prophetic symbols, is correct, is 
shown by a reference to the interpretation given 
concerning the fourth beast of Daniel's vision. 
"The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom 
upon the earth" (Dan. 7:23). We have already 
shown conclusively that by the dragon was meant 
the pagan Eoman Empire, and the same heads and 
horns are apparently ascribed to this leopard- 
beast, the only difference being that the crowns— 
a symbol of sovereignty— have been transferred 
from the heads to the horns. This substantial 
agreement with the facts of history makes certain 
the identification of this beast with the revised 



The Medieval Period 171 

western Eoman Empire under the papal form, the 
sovereignty being vested in the ten minor king- 
doms until they chose to "give their power and 
strength unto the beast" (Rev. 17:13). 

The symbol of a beast considered merely as a 
beast, could not, in the nature of the case, signify 
anything more than a temporal kingdom or polit- 
ical empire. It will be noticed, however, that this 
particular prophetic symbol is more than a beast; 
for, combined with his beastly nature, there are 
certain characteristics which unmistakably be- 
long to the department of human life— a mouth 
speaking great things; power to magnify himself 
against the God of heaven, to set himself up as an 
object of worship, to single out the saints of God 
and kill them, etc. This combination of symbols 
from the two departments— animal life and human 
life — points us with absolute certainty to the polit- 
ical-religious system of Rome. 

Every historian knows that pagan Rome was 
succeeded by papal Rome. The transfer is ex- 
pressed thus: "And the dragon gave him his 
power, and his seat, and great authority" (verse 
2). The rising papacy succeeded to the power and 
authority formerly exercised by pagan Rome ; and 
when the political capital was removed to Con- 
stantinople, the pope was left in possession of the 
ancient seat of empire and government. "The 
beast" therefore refers to Rome either as a polit- 
ical power or as an ecclesiastical power, the con- 



172 The Church in Prophecy 

text determining whether the political or the eccle- 
siastical phase is meant in a given instance. It will 
be observed, however, that the leading actions 
ascribed to this beast are derived from its human 
characteristics, pointing unerringly to the papacy 
for its fulfilment. 

This beast the world admired. "And they wor- 
shiped the dragon which gave powler unto the 
beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, Who 
is like unto the beast? who is able to make war 
with him?" The expression "worshiped the 
dragon" shows that reference is made to the 
dragon, not as a political power, but as a religious 
power. This worship of the dragon by those who 
worshiped the beast which succeeded the dragon 
was fulfilled by the perpetuation under the papacy 
of the rites and ceremonies of paganism. Eoman 
Catholicism is a strange amalgamation of Juda- 
ism, Christianity, and heathenism. The part de- 
rived from paganism occupies such a prominent 
place in Roman Catholic practise and worship that 
we can not fail to observe its close resemblance to, 
if not absolute identity with, heathenism. Just to 
mention a few points : 

1. The high priest of the pagan religion was 
called Pontifex Maximus, and he claimed spiritual 
and temporal authority over men. The pope of 
Rome borrowed the title and made the same claims, 
even being clad in the same attire. 

2. The heathen wore scapulars, medals, and 



The Medieval Period 173 

images for personal protection. Romanists wear 
the same things for the same purpose. 

3. Pagans, by an official process called deifica- 
tion, raised men, after their death, to a dignified 
position and accorded them special honors and 
worship. Papists, by a similar process called 
canonization, exalt men after their death to the 
dignity of saints and then offer up prayers to 
them. 

4. Papists' adoration of idols and images was 
also borrowed direct from the heathen; for all 
such practises were absolutely forbidden by the 
Mosaic law and had no place in primitive Chris- 
tianity. 

5. Their religious orders of monks and nuns 
were also in imitation of the vestal virgins of 
antiquity. 

The beast is described as a blasphemous power. 
Adam Clarke has stated that "blasphemy, in 
Scripture, signifies impious speaking, when ap- 
plied to God; and injurious speaking, when di- 
rected against our neighbor/' A name of blas- 
phemy would therefore properly signify the pros- 
titution of a sacred name to an unholy purpose. 
An example of this kind is given in Rev. 2 : 9, 
where we read, "I know the blasphemy of them 
which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the 
synagog of Satan." In this case certain wicked 
men blasphemed the name by calling themselves 
Jews, since according to Scripture 'he only is a 



174 The Church in Prophecy 

Jew who is one inwardly.' But to prostitute a 
sacred name to an unworthy use would be no more 
impious or blasphemous than would the assump- 
tion by man of those rights and prerogatives 
which belong to God alone. This the pope has 
done for ages. Among the blasphemous titles 
which he has assumed are these: "Lord God the 
Pope," "King of the World," "Holy Father," 
"King of kings and Lord of lords," "Vicegerent 
of the Son of God. ' ' For ages he has claimed in- 
fallibility, and this claim became a dogma of the 
church when adopted by the General Council of 
1870. Further, he claims power to dispense with 
God's laws, to forgive sins, to release from purga- 
tory, to damn and to save. To call the Roman 
Catholic Church the holy church of the Bible is to 
prostitute a sacred name to an unworthy institu- 
tion. And to elevate a man to the place where "he 
as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing him- 
self that he is God," by claiming those prerog- 
atives which belong to God only, is most flagrant 
blasphemy. 

"And it was given unto him to make war with 
the saints, and to overcome them : and power was 
a persecut- given him over all kindreds, and 

ing power tongues, and nations" (chap. 13: 

7). Here we have a direct prediction of that reign 
of tyranny in the Dark Ages in which millions of 
people suffered martyrdom at the hands of papal 
Rome. 



The Medieval Period 175 

I am aware that many Catholics affirm that their 
church never persecuted* that it was the civil 
power that did this dread work of slaughter. We 
must remember, however, that the beast of Reve- 
lation 13 signifies the imperial and the ecclesias- 
tical power in the closest union possible; for the 
beast appears as one, the two phases being rep- 
resented by the combination of symbols from the 
two distinct departments of life— human and an- 
imal. In the seventeenth chapter we have the 
same distinct characteristics again set forth, but 
in a different combination, the beast appearing 
simply as a beast, thus representing the political 
power of Rome; while the ecclesiastical power is 
represented by a corrupt woman sitting on the 
beast and directing its course. In that descrip- 
tion it is stated, "And I saw the woman drunken 
with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of 
the martyrs of Jesus" (verse 6). The Romish 
church itself is, therefore, represented as partic- 
ipating in the work of martyrdom. 

Does this divine prediction agree with the facts 
of history ! It is altogether impossible to com- 
pute correctly the number of those who were in 
different ways put to death for opposing the cor- 
ruption of the Church of Rome. A million Wal- 
denses perished in France. Nine hundred thous- 
and Christians were slain within thirty years after 
the institution of the Jesuits. The Duke of Alva 
boasted that he had put to death 36,000 in the 



176 The Church in Prophecy 

Netherlands by the hands of the common execu- 
tioner. The Inquisition destroyed 150,000 within 
thirty years. If it be asserted that this was ac- 
complished by the secular arm, I reply that sen- 
tence of death was pronounced upon so-called 
heretics by the church and that the secular powei 
was simply a tool for carrying the barbarous sen- 
tence into execution. We can not forget that the 
pope applauded Charles IX of France and his in- 
famous mother, Catherine de Medici, for their part 
in the massacre of St. Bartholomew, and ordered a 
medal struck in honor of the event; that follow- 
ing the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, when 
300,000 were cruelly butchered during the reign 
of Louis XIV, Pope Innocent XI extolled the king 
by special letter, as follows: "The Catholic 
Church shall most assuredly record in her sacred 
annals a work of such devotion toward her and 
CELEBRATE YOUR NAME WITH NEVER- 
DYING PRAISES . . . for this most excellent 
undertaking." 

Popery has for ages claimed the right to exter- 
minate by death those who wiere heretics. Nu- 
merous provincial and national councils have is- 
sued cruel and bloody laws for the extermination 
of the Waldenses and other so-called heretics. Be- 
sides these, at least six of their General Councils, 
the highest judicial assemblies of the Roman 
Church, with the popes themselves sometimes pres- 
ent in person, have by their decrees pronounced 



The Medieval Period 111 

the punishment of death for heresy : 1. The Second 
General Council of Lateran (1139) in its twenty- 
third canon. 2. The Third General Council of 
Lateran (1179), under Pope Alexander III. 3. 
The Fourth General Council of Lateran (1215), 
under Pope Innocent III. 4. The Sixteenth Gen- 
eral Council, held at Constance in 1414. This coun- 
cil, with Pope Martin present in person, condemned 
the reformers Huss and Jerome to be burned at 
the stake, and then prevailed on the Emperor 
Sigismund to violate the safe conduct which he had 
given Huss and signed by his own hand and in 
which he had guaranteed the reformer a safe re- 
turn to Bohemia; and this inhuman sentence 
against Huss was then carried out. 5. The Coun- 
cil of Sienna (1423), which was afterwards con- 
tinued at Basil. 6. The Fifth General Council of 
Lateran (1514). 

That such teachings and practises were an in- 
tegral part of Romanism is easily shown. St. 
Aquinas, the "angelic doctor,' ' argued that her- 
etics might justly be killed. Cardinal Bellarmine, 
in a Latin work, Be Laieis, still extant, entered into 
a regular argument to prove that the church has 
the right of punishing heretics with death and 
should exercise that right. Bellarmine was a 
nephew of one pope and a close friend and asso- 
ciate of others, a champion of Romanism, and a 
defender of its doctrines. In the work above re- 
ferred to he declares that "heretics were often 



178 The Church in Prophecy 

burned BY THE CHURCH." "The Donatists, 
Manicheans, and Albigenses were routed and an- 
nihilated by arms." 

Many timid-hearted Christians in the present 
age of religious toleration think that it is almost 
unchristianlike for us to bring up and lay to the 
charge of Rome such a sweeping indictment for 
those massacres of Christians in a barbarous age. 
Such it would be had Rome ever disavowed these 
acts or shown any signs of true repentance. The 
fact is that it is the boast of Catholics that ' l Rome 
never changes." Well has Charles Butler said, 
"It is most true that the Roman Catholics believe 
the doctrines of their church to be unchangeable; 
and that it is a tenet of their creed, that what their 
faith ever has been, such it was from the begin- 
ning, such it is now, and such it ever will be." 

In a copy of the eleventh edition of ' * The Faith 
of Our Fathers," by Cardinal Gibbons, page 95, 
I read: "It is a marvelous fact, worthy of record, 
that in the whole history of the church, from the 
nineteenth century to the first, no solitary example 
can be adduced to show that any pope or general 
council ever revoked a decree of faith or morals 
enacted by any preceding pontiff or council. Her 
record in the past ought to be a sufficient warrant 
that she will tolerate no doctrinal variations in the 
future." So the doctrine of her inherent right to 
persecute and slay every one who disagrees with 
her, which has been enacted by popes and gen- 



The Medieval Period 179 

eral councils and carried out in the past, is still 
in vogue. 

"And I saw the woman drunk with the blood 
of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of 
Jesus.' ' 

In our study of Revelation 12 and 13 we have 
observed that Rome in its twofold form— pagan 
and papal— is represented by the dragon and the 
beast respectively. This has been established so 
clearly as to remove well nigh all doubt concern- 
ing the identification. It will be profitable, how- 
ever, to give brief consideration to certain par- 
allel prophecies in Daniel ; for in addition to cover- 
ing the same ground and describing under other 
symbols the same general facts of history, they 
furnish us an infallible starting-stake, thus es- 
tablishing definitely the truth of the interpretation 
concerning the Roman power, and giving us a 
solid basis from which we can proceed with logical 
certainty to the interpretation of other symbols in 
the Revelation. 

In the second chapter of Daniel we have the nar- 
rative of a dream which Nebuchadnezzar, king of 
The image of Babylon, had during the time of 

Nebuchadnezzar's the Jewish captivity in that city. 
dream After the king awoke, he was so 

confused that notwithstanding the deep impres- 
sion made by his nocturnal experience, he could 
not recall to mind the dream itself. He therefore 
had recourse to the Chaldeans and wise men of his 



180 The Church in Prophecy 

realm. They failed to make known his dream, 
whereupon he became furious and decreed their 
death. At this juncture Daniel came forward and 
announced that if given time he would fulfil 
the king's desire, and shortly afterward he ap- 
peared before the king and addressed him as fol- 
lows: 

"Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great 
image. This great image, whose brightness was 
excellent, stood before thee : and the form thereof 
was terrible. This image 's head was of fine gold, 
his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his 
thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his feet part of 
iron and part of clay. Thou sawest till that a 
stone was cut out without hands, which smote the 
image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and 
brake them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, 
the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces 
together, and became like the chaff of the summer 
threshing-floors ; and the wind carried them away, 
that no place was found for them: and the stone 
that smote the image became a great mountain, 
and filled the wfhole earth" (Dan. 2:31-35). 

The interpretation of this dream, as given by the 
prophet, particularly concerns and interests us. 
Said Daniel : l ' This is the dream ; and we will tell 
the interpretation thereof before the king. ' ' " Thou, 
king, art a king of kings : for the God of heaven 
hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, 
and glory. And wheresoever the children of men 



The Medieval Period 181 

dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the 
heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath 
made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this 
head of gold" (verses 36-38). 

At the time of this vision the Chaldean mon- 
archy was in the height of her power and glory. 
Babylon, the capital city, was the chief " pride of 
the Chaldees' excellency, ' ' containing those mag- 
nificent hanging gardens, one of the Seven Won- 
ders of the ancient world. Nebuchadnezzar was 
pointed out particularly as the head of gold in 
the image, but we should bear in mind that in the 
general language of prophecy, "kings" signify 
not merely individual monarchs but monarchies 
under a succession of princes of the same nation. 
That the real significance of the head of gold is the 
Babylonian Kingdom or Monarchy is shown by the 
fact that in the description of the other three divi- 
sions of the same image they are referred to di- 
rectly as kingdoms. The Babylonian Kingdom 
came to an end with the death of Belshazzar, and 
the overthrow of his father Nabonadius in 538 
B.C. 

"And after thee shall arise another kingdom 
inferior to thee" (verse 39). This is the explana- 
tion given of that part of the image represented 
by the breast and arms of silver. This refers to 
the Medo-Persian empire, which, under Cyrus the 
Great, captured Babylon 538 B. C. and terminated 
the Chaldean empire. The Persian kingdom was 



182 The Church in Prophecy 

in certain respects inferior to the Chaldean, just as 
silver is inferior to gold. It was neither as wealthy 
nor as prosperous, and Was particularly inferior 
in the character of its kings, for from the death 
of Cyrus they are said to have heen ' ' as vile a set 
of men as ever disgraced human nature/ ' 

"And another third kingdom of brass, which 
shall bear rule over all the earth.' ' This refers 
to the Macedonian, or Greek, empire founded by 
Alexander the Great. After subduing Greece and 
reducing Egypt, Alexander penetrated into Asia, 
took Tyre, met and overthrew Darius the Persian 
at Arbela, in 331 B. C, thus terminating the 
Persian Empire. The Grecian Kingdom had less 
external magnificence than those which preceded it 
and was founded and maintained by force of 
arms; but it was more extensive than the others, 
including many dominions in Europe, Africa, and 
regions farther to the east in Asia than had be- 
fore been penetrated. It was foretold that this 
kingdom should "bear rule over all the earth ,, ; 
it was the main boast of Alexander that he had 
subdued the whole world. 

"And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as 
iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and 
subdueth all things : and as iron that breaketh all 
these, shall it break in pieces and bruise' ' (verse 
40). This corresponds to the "legs of iron, his 
feet part of iron and part of clay," in the dream 
itself. The reference is to the Roman Empire, 



The Medieval Period 183 

which succeeded the Grecian. Whether or not the 
two legs had any special significance is not stated, 
but commentators frequently refer us to the two 
divisions into which the empire of Rome was 
afterwards divided— Bast and West. So also the 
ten toes of the image are often explained as sig- 
nifying the ten minor kingdoms which grew out 
of the empire. But we should bear in mind that 
this is not stated either in the vision itself or in 
its inspired interpretation. Only four kingdoms 
are referred to as such. The fourth division, rep- 
resenting Rome (in both its strong and its weak 
condition), is described simply as "the kingdom," 
' ' the fourth kingdom. ' ' The Roman Kingdom was 
at first ' ' as strong as iron. ' ' No other people have 
ever made such extensive conquests through a long 
period of time as did the Romans. 

If Nebuchadnezzar 's dream brought a man into 
prominence as a symbolic object, we should think 
that, in accordance with the nature of symbols, a 
religious power or powers only were intended; 
but the symbol is not a man, but only the image 
of a man, and that image is composed of inanimate 
materials, which, drawn from the department of 
nature, refer to something political. We there- 
fore have political kingdoms set forth. The very 
fact that they are represented as appearing in the 
form of a man, however, may at least allude to 
their being political powers combined with relig- 
ious systems. But the combination is not such a 



184 The Church in Prophecy 

one as would naturally lead us to conclude that 
reference is made to God's church. 

The description of Nebuchadnezzar's dream rep- 
resented "a stone cut out without hands, which 
smote the image upon his feet that were of iron 
and clay, and brake them to pieces' ' (verse 34). 
The interpretation of this event is given as fol- 
lows: "And in the days of these kings shall the 
God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall 
never be destroyed : and the kingdom shall not be 
left to other people, but it shall break in pieces 
and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand 
forever" (verse 44). 

The kingdom of God appears as the fifth uni- 
versal kingdom, destined to survive and surpass 
all others. It is of divine origin, cut out "without 
hands." The other kingdoms are similar in their 
nature and closely connected, in the single image 
of a man; but the kingdom of God is altogether 
different and antagonistic. The prophecy refers 
to the establishment of the kingdom of God in the 
early days of Christianity; for, be it observed, 
this stone struck the image when all its four divi- 
sions were yet standing. Not only was the iron 
and the clay broken by the impact, but "the iron, 
the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold" were 
"broken to pieces TOGETHER, and became like 
the chaff of the summer threshing-floors" (verse 
35). 

Here is a most important fact wholly unnoticed 



The Medieval Period 185 

by those millennialists who look to the future of 
our day for the establishment of the kingdom of 
Christ. If the stone has not yet struck the image, 
then the chief part of the prophetic description 
never can be fulfilled; for there is no sense in 
which the advent of the divine kingdom in this late 
age of the world can break in pieces the entire 
image of Nebuchadnezzar's dream, there being no 
way in which it can truthfully be said that its four 
divisions are yet standing. All these facts were 
true in the days of Rome, however, when Christ 
appeared. The Eoman Kingdom possessed all the 
distinguishing marks and characteristics of the 
preceding empires. This is true not only of their 
territorial possession but of their distinctive char- 
acteristics. The opulence of the Babylonians, the 
splendor of the Persians, the strength and dis- 
cipline of the Greeks, were all merged into the 
Roman Empire. And more than this, these king- 
doms were all idolatrous, and the religion of the 
Babylonians was merely absorbed in the Persian 
Kingdom (not destroyed) ; that of the Persian 
was perpetuated under the Greek reign; and all 
these found recognition in the divers forms of 
paganism existing under Rome. In this sense the 
image, as opposed to the divine kingdom of Christ, 
was all standing at the time of the first advent of 
the Messiah, and the overthrow of paganism by 
early Christianity corresponds with the stroke 
given by the little stone of Daniel 2. 



186 The Church in Prophecy 

Notice how this fulfilment is parallel with the 
prophecies of the Revelation. In chapter 12 the 
Roman Empire under its pagan form is repre- 
sented by the dragon. Christianity waged war- 
fare with this huge system of false religion and 
overthrew it. "And I heard a loud voice saying 
in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, 
and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his 
Christ' ' (chap. 12:10). 

The kingdom represented in Nebuchadnezzar's 
dream came in the day of incarnation and soon 
smote the kingdoms of heathen darkness as exist- 
ing in the embrace of Rome, and broke them in 
pieces. It was then in the stage represented by a 
stone. At a later time we shall observe the king- 
dom in its mountain epoch, when it becomes a 
great mountain and fills the whole earth. 

The four constituent parts of Nebuchadnezzar's 
visionary image were interpreted to signify four 
vision of successive monarchies, the Bab- 

four beasts ylonian being the first. In the 

seventh chapter Daniel records his own vision 
of four great beasts that arose out of the violently 
agitated sea, and these represent the same four 
kingdoms described in Nebuchadnezzar's dream. 
"These great beasts, which are four, are four 
kings, which shall arise out of the earth" (verse 
17). To the worldly, carnal mind of Nebuchad- 
nezzar, empires possessed a show of grandeur and 
glory, and they were therefore represented ac- 



The Medieval Period 187 

cordingly in his vision ; but to the spiritual-minded 
Daniel they Would appear odious and terrible, and 
they were therefore represented to him under the 
symbol of devouring beasts. 

The kingdoms symbolized by the first three 
beasts of this vision have no particular bearing on 
our subject, aside from assisting us in fixing the 
chronology of certain events. The first beast sig- 
nifies the Babylonian Empire, corresponding to 
the head of the image in Nebuchadnezzar 's vision ; 
the second, the Medo-Persian, corresponding to the 
breast and arms of silver; the third, the Grecian, 
corresponding to the belly and thighs of brass. 
The description of these beasts shows that in one 
sense they are successive and in another sense 
simultaneous. 

I have already shown that the entire image of 
Nebuchadnezzar 's dream was standing in the days 
of Roman ascendency, when the kingdom of God 
came. The same fact is brought out in the chap- 
ter now under consideration. After mentioning 
particularly the fourth beast, Daniel says, "As 
concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their 
dominion taken away: yet their lives were pro- 
longed for a season and time" (verse 12). When 
these kingdoms lost their independent sovereignty, 
they still continued as provinces, ruled by another 
similar power. 

The description of the fourth beast directly con- 
cerns our subject: "After this I saw in the night 



188 The Church in Prophecy 

visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and 
terrible, and strong exceedingly ; and it had great 
The fourth iron teeth : it devoured and brake 

beast in pieces, and stamped the res- 

idue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from 
all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten 
horns. I considered the horns, and, behold, there 
came up among them another little horn, before 
whom there were three of the first horns plucked 
up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were 
eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking 
great things " (verses 7, 8). 

The interpretation of this beast given by the 
angel possesses unusual interest. "Thus he said, 
The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon 
earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, 
and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread 
it down, and break it in pieces. And the ten horns 
out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise ' ' 
(verses 23, 24). Since the interpretation given by 
Daniel identifies the first kingdom with the Bab- 
ylonian Empire, we have an infallible starting- 
stake. Therefore the " fourth' ' kingdom repre- 
sented by the terrible nondescript beast of chap- 
ter 7 is none other than the Roman. The ten 
horns of this beast are interpreted to signify ten 
kings, or kingdoms, thus representing the ten 
minor kingdoms into which the Soman Empire 
was finally subdivided. 

The description given of the tyrannical reign 



The Medieval Period 189 

of this fourth beast aptly portrays the history of 
Rome. By wars and conquests the Eoman power 
broke down all opposition and reduced almost 
every kingdom in the then-known world to a state 
of dependence. She drew the spoils of their cap- 
itals to enlarge her own proud metropolis and thus 
tyrannized over all who did not quietly yield to 
her unquestioned obedience. 

The beast considered as a beast, could signify 
nothing more than a political power, and the ten 
horns temporal kingdoms. But in this connection 
I wish to call attention to a singular fact ; namely, 
that, associated with the animal propensities, there 
are certain characteristics drawn from human life. 
"I considered the horns, and, behold, there came 
up among them another little horn, before whom 
there were three of the first horns plucked up by 
the roots : and, behold, in this horn were eyes like 
the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great 
things' ' (verse 8). 

A horn with the eyes and mouth of a man is a 
most unusual thing, and yet it is just such a com- 
The marvelous bination as we might expect when 

hom we possess a correct understand- 

ing of the nature of symbols. These closely united 
symbols drawn from two departments— human 
and animal life— point us with absolute certainty 
to a temporal power combined with an ecclesi- 
astical power. The chronology of the event is 
fixed by the fact that this eleventh horn came up 



190 The Church in Prophecy 

among the ten horns, three of the original ten be- 
ing removed in order to give it room. The ten 
kingdoms all arose within two centuries after 356 
A. D. ; therefore the facts brought out in the sym- 
bol direct us to the period of the downfall of West- 
ern Rome for the rise into prominence of the lit- 
tle horn. 

In giving Daniel the interpretation of the fourth 
beast, the angel also described more particularly 
this little horn and the nature of its work. First 
Daniel said : ' ' I would know the truth of the fourth 
beast . . . and of the ten horns that were in his 
head, and of the other which came up, and before 
whom three fell ; even of that horn that had eyes, 
and a mouth that spake very great things, whose 
look was more stout than his fellows. I beheld, 
and the same horn made war with the saints, and 
prevailed against them" (verses 19-21). And the 
angel explained: "The fourth beast shall be the 
fourth kingdom upon earth . . . and the ten horns 
out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise : 
another shall rise after them; and he shall be 
diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three 
kings. And he shall speak great words against 
the most High, and think to change times and laws : 
and they shall be given into his hand until a time 
and times and the dividing of time. But the judg- 
ment shall sit, and they shall take away his domin- 
ion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end" 
(verses 23-26). 



The Medieval Period 191 

With the explanation that the fourth heast sig- 
nified the fourth kingdom, it is impossible to evade 
the conclusion that the politico-religious power 
symbolized by the little horn that came up among 
the ten horns refers directly to the papacy. There 
is no other object that can fulfil the prophecy. The 
papacy was just beginning to make itself strongly 
felt among the divisions of the Western Roman 
Empire, and it is a fact of history that three of the 
original ten divisions in the territory of Italy were 
actually plucked up successively before the rising 
papacy as if to give it room for development. 

When the Western Empire was overthrown in 
A. D. 476, the kingdom of the Heruli was estab- 
lished in Italy. In 493 this was succeeded by the 
Ostrogoths, which continued for sixty years and 
was afterwards succeeded by the Lombards. The 
Lombard Kingdom was overthrown by Pepin and 
Charlemagne, who gave a large part of the con- 
quered territory to the pope, thus favoring the 
papacy with her first temporal power. This grant 
completed the symbol of Daniel's vision by con- 
stituting the papacy a temporal as well as an ec- 
clesiastical power. 

The description of the great things spoken by 
the mouth of the little horn and of the persecu- 
tion of the true saints of God by this power corre- 
sponds so minutely with the characteristics of the 
lirst beast of Revelation 13 that no further descrip- 
tion is here necessary. It is said that he would 



192 The Church in Prophecy 

also i ' think to change times and laws. ' ' The lan- 
guage is spoken as if this were a most extraor- 
dinary thing to do. Surely it is no extraordinary 
thing for a king to alter secular laws in his own 
dominion ; and so far as heathen kingdoms are con- 
cerned, it would be no sacrilegious act for them to 
alter their religious laws and customs. But the 
little horn was to set himself up against the Most 
High and think to change His times and laws— an 
act of unparalleled audacity, impiety, and blas- 
phemy. This description the papacy has consis- 
tently and constantly fulfilled. The pope has as- 
sumed the power to make time holy or unholy as 
he sees fit ; to command men to abstain from meat 
and to cease work, contrary to the demands of God. 
He has claimed the power to dispense with God's 
laws or obedience to them, ' ' forbidding to marry, ' ' 
and through his indulgences to remit the penalty 
due to sin. 

The student of prophecy can not fail to see the 
striking similarity between the description of the 
little horn in Daniel 7 and that of the ten-horned 
leopard-beast of Revelation 13. The following 
parallels prove their identity : 

1. Both are blasphemous powers (Dan. 7:25; 
Rev. 13:6). 

2. They speak great things and blasphemies 
(Dan. 7:8, 20; Rev. 13:5). 

3. Both are persecuting powers making war on 
the saints (Dan. 7:21; Rev. 13:7). 



The Medieval Period 193 

4. The chronology of each shows that the power 
rose to prominence about the time of the cessa- 
tion of the pagan Eoman Empire. 

5. The length of time during which they were 
to continue is the same— forty-two months, or 
twelve hundred and sixty days. 

6. Both are to be gradually but finally de- 
stroyed (Dan. 7:26; Rev. 13:10). 

These powers, then, appear at the same time, 
in the same territory, have the same character, do 
the same work, continue the same length of time, 
and meet the same fate. These facts prove iden- 
tity. We have, therefore, positive proof drawn 
from the parallel prophecies in Daniel that the 
first beast of Revelation 13 signifies the politico- 
religious system of Rome. 

The identification of the little horn of Daniel 7 
with the leopard-beast of Revelation 13 is now 
Length of the complete. That both apply to the 

papal reign papacy has been conclusively 

shown. We shall now turn our attention to the 
length of time that this power was to reign. Daniel 
limits the triumph of the little horn to "a time and 
times and the dividing of time" (Dan. 7:25). 
"Time," in the singular, of course, signifies one 
time. "Times," plural, without a designating 
number, signifies two times. "The dividing of 
time" is rendered in chapter 12:7, also in both 
texts in the Revised Version, "a half." So the 
entire period is three and a half times. 



194 The Church in Prophecy 

The seven-year period of Nebuchadnezzar's in- 
sanity is described as seven times (chap. 4:25). 
We therefore conclude that the period of three and 
a half times signifies three and a half years. This 
agrees with the reign of the leopard beast of Rev- 
elation 13, namely, " forty and two months' ' 
(verse 5), or according to the Jewish method of 
computing time— thirty days to the month— twelve 
hundred and sixty days. Notice that this also 
agrees both in the manner of statement and in 
point of duration with the flight of the woman 
into the wilderness, as described in Revelation 12. 
She was to be nourished for "a time, and times, 
and half a time" (verse 14), which period is 
spoken of in verse 6 of the same chapter as "a 
thousand two hundred and threescore days." 

The terms ordinarily used to measure the dura- 
tion of time may be and often are used in a sym- 
bolic sense ; for time, as well as anything else, can 
be symbolized. Thus days may properly symbol- 
ize years ; for they are analogous periods of time, 
the diurnal revolution of the earth being taken to 
represent the earth's annual movement. Other 
standards of reckoning may also be employed sym- 
bolically, but the one here referred to is doubtless 
most frequently employed. Such a system of 
reckoning time was known anciently. The Mosaic 
law recognized two kinds of weeks, the first of 
seven days ' duration, the last day of which was a 
Sabbath; another week of seven years' duration, 



The Medieval Period 195 

the last year being a Sabbath of rest for the land. 
This fact explains such expressions as " forty 
days, each day for a year" (Num. 14: 34), and "I 
have appointed thee each day for a year" (Ezek. 
4:6). 

There is no doubt that the year-day method of 
computing time is used in the prophecy of Daniel 
9, the sixty-nine weeks reaching from the time of 
the decree of Artaxerxes in 457 B. C. until A. D. 
26, the year when Christ was baptized and entered 
on his personal ministry. 

Applying the year-day standard to the period 
of twelve hundred and sixty days, we have twelve 
The correct hundred and sixty years. The 

starting-point nex t question to arise is, What 

date' shall we select as the proper time from which 
to measure this 1,260-year period? It is important 
that we correctly solve this question. Expositors 
have selected different dates. They usually point 
out some particular historical date having an im- 
portant bearing on Rome's development; as, for 
example, A. D. 606, when Phocas, Emperor of the 
East, accorded the Church of Rome special recog- 
nition. But the papacy grew up in the West. If 
we are to regard as of unusual importance polit- 
ical recognition of the claims of the papacy, why 
not give preference to imperial recognition in the 
very section that constituted the home of the 
papacy 1 

Before considering further the relation of the 



196 The Church in Prophecy 

growing papacy to the imperial power in the West- 
ern Empire, I must call attention to an important 
fact generally overlooked or disregarded by ex- 
positors. The 1,260-year period not only marks 
the time of triumph by the beast-power, but also 
measures the period during which the woman, or 
true church, was to be secluded in the wilderness. 
Two parallel lines of prophetic truth— respecting 
the true church and a false church— are therefore 
set forth as coexistent and in contrast with each 
other. The correct starting-stake can not, there- 
fore, be when the papacy had obtained complete 
ascendency, for this would be too late to consis- 
tently begin to measure the decayed state of the 
true church. The date selected must be consistent 
with both lines of prophecy. The apostasy did not 
take place suddenly, however, but was a gradual 
decline, a "falling away"; and the papacy, on the 
other hand, did not rise to great power suddenly, 
but grew up by degrees. It was at first "a little 
horn," but finally his "look was more stout than 
his fellows. ' ' Paul says that the ' ' mystery of 
iniquity"— the seed of apostasy— was already 
working in his day and that later ' ' that Wicked ' ' 
should be revealed in all its terrible features (see 
2 Thess. 2:3-8). We therefore have to deal with 
a sliding-scale, a gradual decline on the part of the 
true church, and a constant increase of that false, 
apostate power which finally culminated in the full- 
grown papacy. 



The Medieval Period 197 

Bearing in mind that the 1,260-year period meas- 
ures both phases, we are obliged to select for our 
beginning a time about half way between both ex- 
tremes, a time when, we might say, the "falling 
away" from the pure apostolic truth and standard 
was about half completed and when the papacy 
was about half developed. While the woman was 
secluded in the wilderness, the beast-power oc- 
cupied the public view; and this was exactly the 
reverse of apostolic times, when the woman was 
exalted above all and before all, ' * clothed with the 
sun and with the moon under her feet, and upon 
her head a crown of twelve stars." In other 
words, the extreme of darkest night succeeded the 
light of glorious day. 

The period of the first apostles was the period 
of the church's purity and triumph. In their hands 
the cause was safe and the pure truth shown forth 
in beauty and power. But with the close of the 
apostolic era, the apostasy came on at a rapid rate, 
as the extant writings of the early church fathers 
show. 

By the middle of the fifth century the light of 
the gospel was eclipsed in the darkness of Roman- 
ism. During this century the papacy secured polit- 
ical recognition of its claims to direct jurisdiction 
over all churches. This occurred during the ponti- 
ficate of Leo I, who, because of his success in 
furthering the interests of the popedom, shares 
alone with Pope Gregory the title of ' ' the Great. ' ' 



198 The Church in Prophecy 

To quote from the New Schaff-Herzog Encyclo- 
pedia, Leo "entered upon a pontificate which was 
to be epoch-making for the centralization of the 
government of the church. ' ' Political causes com- 
bined to advance the claims of the papacy to uni- 
versal recognition. Attila, with his fierce barbar- 
ians, invaded Italy and laid waste many of her 
fairest provinces and then advanced boldly on 
Rome, whereupon Pope Leo went out to the camp 
f£ the invaders and secured the evacuation of 
Italy. The pope obtained the full support of Val- 
entinian III. In 445 Leo enforced authority in the 
distant patriarchate of Alexandria. In 444-446 he 
was in conflict with the Illyrian bishops. During 
this time in a letter addressed to them he laid down 
the principle that St. Peter had received the pri- 
macy and oversight of the whole church and that 
hence all important matters must be referred to 
and decided by Rome. He also proceeded to ex- 
tend his authority over Gaul. In this effort he ob- 
tained from Valentinian III the famous decree of 
June 6, 445, which ' i recognized the primacy of the 
Pope of Rome based on the merits of Peter, the 
dignity of the city, and the decrees of Nice (in 
their interpolated form) ; ordained that any oppo- 
sition to this rulings, which were to have the force 
of law, should be treated as treason ; and provided 
for the forcible extradition by provincial gover- 
nors of any one who refused to answer a summons 
to Rome. ' ' 



The Medieval Period 199 

The apostle John was banished to the Isle of 
Patmos in 95. Regarding that date as the close of 
the pure apostolic era, and 445, when the pope re- 
ceived from the emperor of the West official rec- 
ognition of his claims to universal supremacy in 
the church, as representing one other extreme, we 
have but to calculate the time half way between 
these extremes to find the consistent starting-stake 
for the beginning of that time prophecy which is 
to measure both lines of prophetic truth. From 
95 to 445 is a period of 350 years. Half of this 
period is 175 years. Therefore 175 years after 
95, or 270, is the correct starting-point. 

Protestant church historians recognize the de- 
cline that came in the early church. Many of 
them, as D'Aubigne, Marsh, Rutter, Waddington, 
and others, point to the third century, or the lat- 
ter half of the third century, as marking an un- 
usual epoch in this declension. Others, however, 
who view things almost wholly from the external 
point of view, regard the accession of Constantine 
in the early part of the following century as mark- 
ing the important epoch. With reference to this 
subject, I quote Joseph Milner, the English eccle- 
siastical historian: "I know it is common for 
authors to represent the declension of Christian- 
ity to have taken place only after its external es- 
tablishment under Constantine. But the events of 
history have compelled me to dissent from this 
view of things. "-Ch. Hist., Cent. IV, Chap. I. 



200 The Church in Prophecy 

It is also evident from the facts of history that, 
in addition to the corruption of evangelical faith, 
that other phase of the apostasy— human eccle- 
siasticism— was also highly developed before the 
end of the third century. George P. Fisher says, 
"The accession of Constantine [A. D. 312] found 
the church so firmly organized under the hierarchy 
that it could not lose its identity by being abso- 
lutely merged in the state.' '—History of the Chris- 
tian Church, p. 99. 

In the year A. D. 270 Anthony, an Egyptian, the 
father of monasticism, fixed his abode in the des- 
erts of Egypt and formed monks into organized 
bodies. Dowling, describing the extravagance of 
monkery and the false standard of piety and holi- 
ness it created, declares that monkery "actually 
affected the church universal." See History of 
Bomanism, pp. 88, 89. Very few marks of genu- 
ine piety remained. With the decline of evangel- 
ical knowledge came a reign of superstition and 
ignorance. Milner, adverting to the institution of 
monkery in the third century r expresses his "re- 
gret that the faith and love of the gospel received 
toward the close of it a dreadful blow from the 
encouragement of this unchristian practise."— 
Century III, Chap. XX. 

In another place the same historian, speaking of 
the absence of truth and the prevalence of error 
in the third century, says: "It is vain to expect 
Christian faith to abound without Christian doc- 



The Medieval Period 201 

trine. Mjoral and philosophical and monastical 
instructions will not effect for men what is to be 
expected from evangelical doctrine. And if the 
faith of Christ was so much declined (and its de- 
cayed state ought to be dated from about the year 
270), we need not wonder that such scenes as 
Eusebius hints at without any circumstantial de- 
tails, took place in the Christian world."— Cen- 
tury IV, Chap. I. (Parenthetical clause is Mil- 
ner's; italicizing, mine.) In addition to this quo- 
tation, and as if to give emphasis, the historian 
places prominently in a side-head the words, "De- 
cay of pure Christianity, A. B. 270." 

Measuring forward from A. D. 270 the alloted 
period of twelve hundred and sixty years brings 
us to A. D. 1530, a year which marked the begin- 
ning of Protestantism in its organized form. The 
first Protestant creed, the Confession of Augs- 
burg, was made that year. 

The description of the papal power under the 
symbol of the ten-horned beast of Revelation 13 
and the little horn of Daniel 7 presents a melan- 
choly picture of world-events during the long per- 
iod of twelve hundred and sixty years ending with 
the sixteenth century reformation. 

Before proceeding to give in chronological order 
a description of events following the reign of the 
beast, I wish to call attention to an important plan 
followed in the Biblical presentation of prophetic 
truth; namely, that the events are taken up by 



202 The Church in Prophecy 

parallel series covering the same period of time. 
But in addition to this point, we observe the prin- 
Principie of eiple of contrast. When the his- 

paraiieiism t ory of political events is de- 

scribed, we have in contrast therewith a descrip- 
tion of ecclesiastical events; and with the repre- 
sentation of a false church or an apostate state of 
Christianity, we have in immediate contrast the 
history of God's chosen people. Or perhaps the 
order is reversed, but the principle remains the 
same. While, in the nature of things, these dis- 
tinct lines can not always be well represented sym- 
bolically as occurring at the same time, they are 
presented in parallel series, thus proving that they 
were to be fulfilled simultaneously. 

In direct contrast with the power of apostate 
Christendom represented by the papacy, which for 
certain reasons I have presented first, we have in 
chapter 11 of the Revelation a brief history of 
God's true people that existed during the papal 
reign. In this case, however, a description of the 
apostasy and of the true church are presented in 
the same series and in such a way as to give 
special emphasis to the point of contrast as well 
as to prove their simultaneous fulfilment. Thus 
we read: "And there was given me a reed like 
unto a rod : and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and 
measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them 
that worship therein. But the court which is with- 
out the temple leave out, and measure it not; for 



The Medieval Period 203 

it is given unto the Gentiles : and the holy city shall 
they tread under foot forty and two months. And 
I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they 
shall prophecy a thousand two hundred and three 
score days, clothed in sack-cloth" (chap. 11: 1-3). 

It is clear that two powers in the Christian era 
are here represented, the one continuing "forty 
and two months" and the other twelve hundred 
and sixty days, or years, heretofore explained as 
measuring the length of the beast's reign, also of 
the woman's seclusion in the wilderness. This 
similarity naturally suggests that we have here 
the same general facts set forth under other sym- 
bols. Jerusalem, the holy city, the temple, and the 
two witnesses therefore correspond to the woman 
of chapter 12. The crowd of uncircumcised Gen- 
tiles and their profanation of the city of God for 
twelve hundred and sixty years correspond to the 
beast-power of chapter 13. 

Wonderful truth is represented in the vision of 
this chapter. The symbols are drawn from Old 
Testament history, from the religious life of the 
Jews— God's chosen people in contrast with the 
uncircumcised Gentiles. It is evident, therefore, 
that the true church and the false church of the 
gospel era are represented. 

Notice carefully the symbols: holy city, temple, 
altar, worshipers, and living witnesses, or proph- 
ets. These represent the sum and substance of all 
divine revelation in the Mosaic age: holy city, 



204 The Church in Prophecy 

Jerusalem— the place where God set his name; the 
temple— divinely authorized, holy, acceptable wor- 
ship based on careful adherence to God's com- 
mandments formerly given; the altar— the great 
symbol of atonement, the reconciliation of human- 
ity with the divinity; the worshipers in one tem- 
ple— all of God's people in unity; the prophets— 
the divinely commissioned representatives of God 
bearing a living message for the people of their 
time. These conditions represent the Judaic ideal. 
Whether they were ever able to reach their ideal 
or not, it is evident that the Jews had the concep- 
tion of a unified, holy, acceptable service (see Isa. 
4:3; 52 : 1 ; 62 : 1-7) . The two witnesses referred 
to are clearly represented as prophets; for the 
work ascribed to them as attesting their divine 
commission is a repetition of the miraculous works 
of Moses and Elijah by which they established 
their claims to be prophetic leaders authorized by 
Jehovah. The witnesses seem to be distinguished 
from the worshipers simply on account of their 
power and message. 

These symbols represent the true apostolic 
church. It is the holy city, Jerusalem, his temple, 
The two whose holy, united worshipers 

witnesses q^qj ^ e commands of God. The 

application of the " witnesses" particularly spec- 
ified as they are in the description, requires further 
explanation. It is said, * l These are the two olive- 
irees and the two candlesticks standing before the 



The Medieval Period 205 

God of the earth" (Rev. 11:4). Whatever these 
two witnesses signify in particular, they are the 
same as the olive-trees and candlesticks spoken of. 
It appears that allusion is made to Zechariah 4, 
where two olive-trees are represented as standing, 
one on each side of a golden candlestick, distilling 
into it their oil for light. When the angel was asked 
for an explanation of these two olive-trees and the 
candlestick, he answered, ' l This is the Word of the 
Lord . . . by my Spirit saith the Lord ' ' (verse 6). 
We are to understand, therefore, that God's Word 
and Spirit are the "two witnesses" in his church; 
that is, they signify the divine element operating 
in his church. Just as the mediation of the proph- 
ets was necessary in the olden times to maintain 
constant contact with God, without which the relig- 
ious exercises degenerated to mere formalism, so 
the living Word and Spirit of God were present 
in the apostolic church to elevate its service above 
mere human systems and forms of worship. That 
the Word of God and the Spirit of God are special 
witnesses is proved by many texts. Jesus said, 
' ' Search the scriptures . . . they are they which 
testify of me " (John 5 : 39) . " This gospel of the 
kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a 
witness unto all nations ' ' (Matt. 24 : 14) . ' i The 
Holy Ghost also is a witness" (Heb. 10: 15). "The 
Spirit itself beareth witness" (Bom. 8:16). "It 
is the Spirit that beareth ivitness" (1 John 5:6). 
Of the uncircumcised Gentiles it is said, "The 



206 The Church in Prophecy 

holy city shall they tread under foot forty and 
two months." This signifies the great apostasy 
that overspread the earth, defiling and perverting 
the true worship of God. The burden of this 
series, however, is not to describe the foreign ele- 
ment thus introduced, but to set forth in greater 
fulness the fact that during the same time that the 
idolatrous multitude of Gentiles trod down the 
holy city God preserved his own people. The tem- 
ple still remained, and it had devout worshipers; 
the two ivitnesses still prophesied, although clothed 
in sackcloth, an emblem of melancholy and mourn- 
ing. While the visions of the Bevelator describe 
particularly the power of apostasy and iniquity 
reigning during the Dark Ages, they do not fail 
to give us the assurance that at the same time God 
had a people whose names were written in the book 
of life (chap. 13: 8)— "saints" (chap. 13: 1Q). 
And these were made the object of the most violent 
persecution (chap. 13:17; 17:6). 

It is rather difficult to trace the true work of 
God during those times; for his "saints" were 
either ignored by the professed multitude or else 
regarded as heretics. But there existed in dif- 
ferent countries bands of people who opposed the 
doctrines and ecclesiastical tyranny of Rome and 
who claimed adherence to the simple, primitive 
faith of Christ as expressed in the gospel. Among 
these were the Cathari, Lombards, Albigenses, 
Waldenses, and Vaudois. I will not say that all 



The Medieval Period 207 

these so-called heretics are to be regarded as the 
true people of God, but from the few records that 
we have of them, derived chiefly from their en- 
emies, it seems clear that there were among them 
many who Were truly " saints" and who clung 
tenaciously to the true faith of Christ. God 's Word 
and Spirit were therefore prophesying, although 
in an unnatural condition, symbolized by the 
sackcloth state of the witnesses. We must also 
remember that even among the Catholic party were 
to be found noble persons whose hearts were true 
to whatever truth they had and whose emotions 
and aspirations at times broke over the bounds of 
traditional theology and gave expression to sen- 
timents Scriptural and sublime. 

The time period first specified in this special 
scene is the same twelve hundred and sixty years 
that marks the reign of the beast and therefore 
closes with the reformation of the sixteenth cen- 
tury. We shall have occasion to return to this 
series later and trace its predictions down to our 
own times. 



CHAPTER XIII 

EEA OF MODEEN SECTS 

We have seen that the 1,260-year universal 
reign of the first beast of Revelation 13 ends with 
Another epoch the period of the Reformation, 
predicted rp^ e exac £ maimer i n which this 

should be accomplished is not definitely given in 
the prophecy, aside from the statement, ' ' He that 
leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he 
that killeth with the sword must be killed with the 
sword' ' (verse 10). This description would seem 
to indicate a period of captivity in which the 
papacy would be deprived of its great power, after 
which it would be finally destroyed; and this 
agrees with Paul's description of the papacy in 
2 Thessalonians 2, where he speaks of that 
Wicked "whom the Lord shall consume with the 
spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the 
brightness of his coming" (verse 8). And Daniel, 
speaking of the end of the 1,260-year reign of the 
same papal beast, points out a reformation time 
when "they shall take away his dominion, to con- 
sume and to destroy it unto the end" (Dan. 7 : 26) . 
There is no doubt that these references point 
out the work of the Reformation which broke the 
power of Rome's universal supremacy and her 
long reign of tyranny over the earth. Humanism, 
discovery of the art of printing, the revival of 

209 



210 The Church in Prophecy 

learning, and other causes contributed to this re- 
sult. But the real revolt came in 1517, when 
Luther in Saxony nailed to the church-door in 
Wittenberg his ninety-five theses against the papal 
traffic in indulgences. The Eeformers made their 
appeal from the decisions of Councils to the in- 
spired Word of God, and this was the secret of 
their success. With wonderful power and bold- 
ness they proclaimed truth that had been neglected 
or discredited for ages. The holy fire spread over 
western Europe. Men became agitated as if moved 
by a mighty unseen power, until the papacy was 
shaken from end to end. 

We regret that the true work of reformation did 
not long continue. A. D. 1530 marks a new epoch 
Protestantism —the rise of organized Protes- 

in prophecy tantism ; marks the end of the 

1,260-year period, and the introduction of another 
ecclesiastical power. The historian D'Aubigne 
recognizes the distinction between the Reforma- 
tion as such and organized Protestantism. In his 
well-known work, History of the Reformation, he 
says: "The first two books of this volume con- 
tained the most important epochs of the Reforma- 
tion—the Protest of Spires and the Confession of 
Augsburg. ... I determined on bringing the 
reformation of Germany and German-Switzerland 
to the decisive epochs of 1530 and 1531. The His- 
tory of the Reformation, properly so-called, is then 
in my opinion almost complete in those countries. 



Era of Modern Sects 211 

The work of faith has there attained its apogee: 
that of conferences, of interims, of diplomacy be- 
gins. . . . The movement of the sixteenth cen- 
tury has there made its effort. I said from the 
very first, It is the History of the Reformation, 
and not of Protestantism, that I am relating."— 
Preface to Volume IV. 

Protestantism, then, is to be distinguished from 
the Reformation. Considering its prominence in 
the ecclesiastical world, we should naturally ex- 
pect to find it represented in the symbols of the 
Revelation. Strangely enough, few commentators 
ever make the least effort to identify Protestant- 
ism with- any of the symbols of this book. Moham- 
medanism is there; Paganism is there; the true 
church is there, and, it is universally admitted, 
the false church is there. Therefore, whether 
Protestantism be true or false, it must be there, 
but where? 

The application of the first beast of Revelation 
13 to the papacy has been so clearly established 
that the point is well-nigh indisputable. The per- 
iod of its universal supremacy is clearly limited 
to the 1,260 years. And every one knows that it 
was the sixteenth century reformation that ended 
that period of tyranny. We have shown that that 
period ends with A. D. 1530. The prophecy im- 
mediately following describes Protestantism in 
these words : 

"And I beheld another beast coming up out of 



212 The Church in Prophecy 

the earth ; and he had two horns like a lamb, and 
he spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the 
The two-homed power of the first beast before 
bcast him, and canseth the earth and 

them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, 
whose deadly wound was healed. And he doeth 
great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down 
from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, and 
deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the 
means of those miracles which he had power to do 
in the sight of the beast ; saying to them that dwell 
on the earth, that they should make an image to 
the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and 
did live. And he had power to give life unto the 
image of the beast, that the image of the beast 
should both speak, and cause that as many as 
would not worship the image of the beast should 
be killed. And he causeth all, both small and great, 
rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark 
in their right hand, or in their foreheads : and that 
no man might buy or sell, save he that had the 
mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of 
his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath 
understanding count the number of the beast: 
for it is the number of a man; and his number 
is Six hundred threescore and six" (Eev. 13: 
11-18). 

Protestant commentators generally apply both 
the ten-horned beast and the two-horned beast to 
Rome, the first representing the political power, 



Era of Modern Sects 213 

and the second the ecclesiastical power. But this 
position, while clearing Protestantism of any 
moral stigma, is such a manifest violation of the 
laws of symbolic language and the general prin- 
ciples of Scriptural interpretation that I marvel 
that any critical thinker could decide to adopt it. 
The two beasts are especially distinguished, and 
in each case the symbol is complete. The first 
beast combines with its beastly characteristics the 
qualities of the human, as did the little horn of 
Daniel 7, thus clearly and positively representing 
both the political and the ecclesiastical dominion 
of Rome. It is the human characteristics that con- 
stitute the leading feature of the terrible work 
ascribed to the first beast; therefore the papacy 
as a religious power is particularly intended. 
Hence the second beast can not be intended to rep- 
resent the ecclesiastical phase of Rome. Notice, 
also, that the symbol of the second beast is like- 
wise complete in itself— animal and human— thus 
embracing both the political and the ecclesiastical. 
Another system totally distinct from the first is 
therefore represented. 

I call attention to certain distinct points prov- 
ing that these two beasts are not identical or simul- 
taneous : 

1. The first is spoken of as "a beast"; the sec- 
ond is called "another beast/ ' 

2. The first came up from the sea; the second 
came out of the earth. 



214 The Church in Prophecy 

3. The first was like a leopard; the second was 
like a lamb. 

4. The first had ten horns signifying ten tem- 
poral kingdoms ; the second had two horns, refer- 
ring to but two temporal powers that supported 
it. 

5. The first blasphemed God and his tabernacle, 
and was therefore antichrist; the second claimed 
to be the true prophet of God and brought down 
"fire from heaven" to attest his claim, but he 
was in reality a "false prophet' ' (chap. 16:13; 
19:20). 

6. The first obtained his power and authority 
from the dragon which preceded him; while the 
second derived his power from the ten-horned 
beast "before him. ,, 

7. The first caused people to worship the pre- 
ceding power styled ' ' the dragon ' ' ; while the sec- 
ond caused people to "worship the first beast.' ' 

8. The first was to continue 1,260 years; while 
the reign of the second is not here stated, but is 
covered in a parallel prophecy to which we shall 
refer later. 

The first beast came up out of the sea, which 
signifies the empire in an agitated state ; and it is 
a fact of history that the ten kingdoms came up 
through great political convulsions. The empire 
Was in a state of comparative quiet, however, when 
the second beast ' l came up out of the earth. ' ' This 
beast stands as the symbol of Protestantism in 



Era of Modern Sects 215 

Europe, although his power and influence was 
afterwards to extend to "the whole world" (chap. 
16: 14). But this beast existed first on the same 
territory occupied by the papacy; therefore the 
two horns doubtless signify temporal kingdoms 
also, and two of the original ten. The two nations 
first to turn violently against the papacy and to 
become the chief supporters and defenders of 
Protestantism were Germany and England. 

It is evident that the second beast of Revelation 
13 was not to be such a terrible power politically 
as was the first beast, for it is described merely as 
having "two horns like a lamb/' But as soon as 
we enter the department to which speaking by 
analogy refers us, we find him to be a great re- 
ligious power, and it is in this character alone 
that he is delineated in the remainder of the chap- 
ter. That his religious power is his leading char- 
acteristic is further proved by the fact that in 
every subsequent reference he is styled the ' ' false 
prophet" (chap. 16:13; 19:20; 20:10). Every 
reference which I give to the second beast must 
therefore be understood as signifying the religious 
system known as Protestantism. 

This beast was to exercise great power— "all 
the power of the first beast before him. ' ' By this 
expression we are to understand that Protestant- 
ism was to exert a universal influence ; that it was 
to become a leading factor in the world 's history, 
as was Romanism before it. This has already been 



216 The Ckurch in Prophecy^ 

fulfilled. The leading nations of the world today, 
the nations that have contributed most to the de- 
velopment of modern civilization and to the light 
and progress of the age, are Protestant nations. 
Those countries that have retained the yoke of 
Romanism are still withering under its blighting 
influence. 

It is said that this beast causes people to "wor- 
ship the first beast. ' ' This is parallel to the state- 
ment that during the reign of the first beast the 
people "worshiped the dragon,' ' which in reality 
preceded it. I have shown that the devotees of 
Romanism worshiped the dragon by perpetuating 
in their religious ceremonies and worship the prac- 
tises of paganism. Likewise Protestants have 
brought over and incorporated in their religious 
system doctrines, rites, and ceremonies that orig- 
inated in Romanism ; and in this respect they wor- 
ship the first beast, even in the very act of render- 
ing service to their own system. Such doctrines 
as infantile damnation, sprinkling for baptism, the 
eternal destruction of all those who are outside the 
pales of the church, infant baptism, and other 
things are all children of the apostasy originating 
in Rome. The Romish Church possesses a human 
ecclesiastical headship and an earthly government 
ruling in the place of Christ, and Protestants make 
an ' ' image ' ' to this beast by building their sects in 
imitation— sects made and ruled by men. To these 
they attach their own names and the distinctive 



Era of Modern Sects 217 

creeds and doctrines of men, and thus their dev- 
otees receive the "mark" and "name" of the 
beast. 

At this point we must make a distinction which, 
being true in the facts of history, must necessarily 
be intended in the symbolic representation. This 
beast was to bring down "fire from heaven.' ' Ac- 
cording to the symbols of chapter 12, the woman, 
or true church, "fled into the wilderness, where 
she hath a place prepared of God, that they should 
feed her there a thousand two hundred and three- 
score days." The time prophecy is the same, and 
covers the same period, as the reign of the papal 
beast. Therefore, just as an important change in 
the papacy occurred at the expiration of that pro- 
phetic period, so also a radical change must be 
expected with reference to the true church : it must 
be no longer completely obscured in the wilder- 
ness. Now, as the Reformation and Protestantism 
as a religion were the means of ending Rome's 
universal spiritual supremacy, so also they must 
be regarded as possessing sufficient light and truth 
to bring into prominence once more the work of 
the Spirit and the true people of God. "Fire from 
heaven" may therefore be regarded as describing 
the divine work of reformation, the unfolding of 
truth accompanied by the saving power of God. 
Such spiritual work has accompanied the origin of 
various religious movements during the Protes- 
tant era. t 



218 The Church in Prophecy 

The general description of the two-horned beast, 
however, makes prominent an evil characteristic 
—the disposition to lead the people into deception 
by making an image to the beast and then wor- 
shiping it. The evil is not located in the ability 
to bring down fire from heaven, but in the decep- 
tive work of image-making and image-worship, for 
which the spiritual work simply furnished an oc- 
casion. The spiritual work of reformation is, 
therefore, to be distinguished from the later work 
of creed- and sect-making; and since the beast 
takes advantage of the manifestation of spiritual 
power and deceives men, he becomes a sort of 
apostate and is denominated "the false prophet" 
(see chap. 16:13; 19:20). 

The beast, ecclesiastically considered, stands as 
the symbol of the religious system and practise of 
Protestantism as a whole— a peculiar combination 
of truth and error, of good and bad, of "fire from 
heaven' ' and false miracle-working power (chap. 
16: 14) ; while the "image to the beast' ' signifies 
the sectarian institution— the man-made and man- 
controlled unscriptural sect machinery constructed 
in imitation of the papal original. To construct 
such earth-born churches and lead people to adore 
and worship them is but a species of idolatry and 
the rankest deception. It is a sad fact, in Prot- 
estantism as well as in Catholicism, that vast mul- 
titudes of people are more devoted to their respec- 
tive churches than to the Lord Jesus Christ. They 



) 
Era of Modern Sects 219 

can witness the open rejection of God's precious 
Word and the vilest profanation of his holy name 
without uttering a word of protest; but let any 
one say a word against their church, and instantly 
they are aroused to the highest pitch of indigna- 
tion. Beast-worshipers! 

The Protestant era has witnessed many won- 
derful reformations in which the true fire of God 
fell upon waiting souls, but this initial work of 
the Spirit has in each instance been employed as 
an excuse for taking the next step— making an 
image ; and thousands of honest souls, lacking bet- 
ter light, have been induced to submit to such hu- 
man organization. Those of this number who 
were truly saved, however, always loved and 
adored their Lord more than the human church to 
which they were attached, and consequently they 
should not be regarded as beast-worshipers. They 
are the ones whom the Lord denominates his peo- 
ple when the voice calls them out of Babylon 
(chap. 18:4). 

The second beast also exhibits the character- 
istics of a persecuting power, and in this respect 
it is similar to the ten-horned beast. The early 
history of Protestantism shows that at that time 
the principle of religious intolerance brought over 
from Eomanism manifested itself in the actual 
putting to death of numerous dissenters. Thus, 
we find Calvin, at Geneva, consenting to the burn- 
ing of Servetus because of a difference in relig- 



220 The Church in Prophecy 

ions views. At a convention in Torgau, in 1574, 
the Lutherans established the real presence of 
Christ in the encharist and then instigated the 
Elector of Saxony to seize, imprison, and banish 
those who differed from them in sentiment, as a 
result of which Peucer suffered ten years of the 
severest imprisonment and Crellius was put to 
death. The Protestant Council of Zurich con- 
demned Felix Mantz to be drowned because he 
insisted that infant sprinkling was not baptism. 
In England the "Bloody Six Articles" of Henry 
VIII are a silent testimony to the intolerant spirit 
of that age, when the -royal reformer dragged dis- 
senters forth to execution. Witness also the 
twelve years' imprisonment of John Bunyan and 
hundreds of others confined in jails throughout 
the country; the persecution of the Quakers; the 
relentless opposition to the Covenanters of Scot- 
land, who were hunted and destroyed like beasts 
because they insisted on their right to worship 
God in their own way. It was this intolerant 
spirit that drove the Puritans to the inhospitable 
shores of America, where they might have the 
free privilege of worshiping God according to the 
dictates of their own conscience. 

It is possible that the persecuting principle 
ascribed to the two-horned beast may include both 
the literal and the ecclesiastical cutting off, ref- 
erence being made directly to the spirit of intol- 
erance which manifested itself first in literal 



Era of Modern Sects 221 

slaughter and later in an unwarranted ecclesias- 
tical exclusiveness. 

The "number of the beast' ' alludes to his pre- 
tentious claims and is probably a symbol of divi- 
sion. The definite number 666 is said to be also 
the number of a man, and since the pope is the 
most important man connected with the papal sys- 
tem, it is natural to identify him with the individ- 
ual referred to. Paul doubtless pointed out the 
pope particularly as the "man of sin," "the son 
of perdition" (2 Thess. 2:3). In former ages, 
before the modern system of notation was intro- 
duced, the only method of denoting numbers was 
by employing the letters of the alphabet, certain 
letters having the power of number as well as of 
sound. We still employ the same system for cer- 
tain purposes. The number of a name was simply 
the number denoted by the several letters of that 
name. 

The pope has a special title. He wears in 
jeweled letters upon his mitre the inscription, 
Vicarius Filii Dei— Vicar of the Son of God. Tak- 
ing from his name all the letters that the Latins 
used for numerals, we have just 666. 

The era of modern sects is also covered in 
other places in Eevelation, for the ecclesiastical 
history of the Christian dispensation is described 
under different parallel series of symbolism. In 
the other series, however, the symbols represent- 
ing Protestantism stand so closely connected with 



222 The Church in Prophecy 

predictions of the last reformation that I shall not 
attempt to enumerate them in this chapter, but 
shall consider them briefly in connection with those 
symbols describing the great final religious move- 
ment toward which all the prophetic lines of truth 
converge and which forms the special subject of 
the present work. 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE LAST EEFOBMATION 

The scene changes, and again we have the pic- 
ture of God's chosen people set in bright relief 
against the dark background of Protestantism and 
the still darker shades of papal apostasy. 

"And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on Mount 
Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four 
The U4,ooo thousand, having his Father's 

on Mount zion name written in their foreheads. 
And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of 
many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder : 
and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their 
harps : and they sung as it were a new song before 
the throne, and before the four beasts, and the 
elders : and no man could learn that song but the 
hundred and forty and four thousand, which were 
redeemed from the earth. These are they which 
were not defiled with women ; for they are virgins. 
These are they which follow the Lamb whitherso- 
ever he goeth. These were redeemed from among 
men, being the first-fruits unto God and to the 
Lamb. And in their mouth was found no guile: 
for they are without fault before the throne of 
God" (Rev. 14:1-5). 

What a contrast with the beast powers described 
in the preceding chapter of the Revelation ! This 
redeemed company is on Mount Zion, not hidden 

223 



224 The Church in Prophecy 

in the darkness of the wilderness. They are with 
the Lamb, not wandering after the beast. Instead 
of being oppressed and overcome by opposers, 
they are singing the joyful song of redemption 
and harping with their harps ; and instead of hav- 
ing the "mark of the beast,' ' they have their 
"Father's name written in their foreheads." The 
manner in which this joyful, redeemed company 
is distinguished from the host of beast-worshipers 
brought to light under the preceding symbols, pro- 
claims unmistakably the fact that we have here a 
description of the true people of God who have 
obtained victory over the apostasy. In other 
words, a distinct reformation is predicted. 

This sublime scene is not a description of 
heaven, for the context shows its direct contact 
with the forms of apostate Christianity with which 
it is placed in contrast on earth. Certain leading 
figures in the scene, as Christ the Lamb and a 
number of angels, are heavenly beings ; but their 
presence simply shows the divine character of the 
work in contrast with those other religious powers, 
one of which came up out of the sea and the other 
out of the earth. Besides, we have already shown 
that whenever angels figure in the symbolic scene 
on earth, they represent distinguished agencies 
among men, and the message of good angels, being 
obviously from heaven, is therefore the message 
of God. When different angels, bearing different 
messages, appear in the same general symbolic 



The Last Reformation 225 

scene, they represent not isolated or independ- 
ent movements, but different phases of the same 
work. 

The Hevelator introduces another phase of the 
religious movement under consideration with these 
words : " And I saw another angel fly in the midst 
of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach 
unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every 
nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, say- 
ing with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to 
him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and 
worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the 
sea, and the fountains of waters" (verses 6, 7). 

In the message of the angel there are set forth 
a number of distinct truths. Prominence is given 
to the call to worship the one true God. This 
stands in contrast with the apostasy preceding; 
for under the papacy its adherents "worshiped 
the dragon' ' and "they worshiped the beast, " 
while the second beast caused people to "worship 
the first beast' ' and to "worship the image of the 
beast." The message of this angel is universal 
and indicates a world-wide missionary effort in 
which the true God and his holy worship alone will 
be exalted, and that before the end of time, for the 
judgment is set forth as an impending event for 
which men must speedily prepare. 

But the description does not end here. An aw- 
ful revelation, falling like hail-stones or coals of 
fire upon the heads of the devotees of modern 



226 The Church in Prophecy 

churchianity, is proclaimed by divine authority: 
"And there followed another angel, saying, Bab- 
ylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she 
made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of 
her fornication. And the third angel followed 
them, saying with a loud voice, If any man wor- 
ship the beast and his image, and receive his mark 
in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall 
drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is 
poured out without mixture into the cup of his 
indignation ' ' (verses 8-10). 

Here we are brought face to face with some of 
the most solemn truths contained in the Book of 
God. The very powers of apostate Christianity 
just described under the symbols of two beasts 
are now represented by the angel as Babylon; 
for, be it observed, the divine message is against 
those who worship the beast and his image. The 
image was made by the second beast. Therefore 
Babylon includes both Romanism and Protestant- 
ism—the whole realm of formal churchianity ; and 
beast-worship is here condemned in one of the 
most terrible denunciations found in all the Word 
of God. All the evils inherent in the false, un- 
scriptural systems of so-called Christianity are 
here summed up under the one word Babylon, of 
which we shall have more to say later. 

Two things prominently brought out in these 
symbols should be remembered, however— first, 
that even during the reign of the beast and his 



The Last Reformation 227 

image, God had true people who were carefully 
distinguished in the prophecy as those whose 
names were written in the book of life and who 
would not " worship the image of the beast "; and 
second, that the symbolic scene now being con- 
sidered represents these saved individuals as 
gathered out into one company with the Lamb on 
Mount Zion, before the end of time. The illustra- 
tion is that of the joyful Israelites who made their 
return to Zion after the fall of literal Babylon, 
where they were long held in captivity. This is 
the illustration and the prophetic description; 
therefore we may rest assured that just as truly 
as time revealed the rise of the papal and Prot- 
estant systems, as set forth in the symbols of the 
Revelation, just so surely will there come before 
the end of time a revival of pure, apostolic Chris- 
tianity, a reformation in which the true people 
of God will take their stand outside of all forms 
of the apostasy and carry the full gospel of the 
Son of God to " every nation, and kindred, and 
tongue, and people.' ' 

We have traced in prophetic symbolism the four 
epochs of the Christian dispensation represented 
respectively by the star-crowned woman, the leo- 
pard-beast, the two-horned beast, and the re- 
deemed company gathered together with the Lamb 
on Mount Zion. The papal period, represented by 
the leopard-beast, continued for 1,260 years, its 
universal sway terminating with the sixteenth cen- 



228 The Church in Prophecy 

tury reformation. The length of the Protestant 
reign following is not stated in this series. 

Let us now return to the description of the two 
witnesses given in Revelation 11. We have already 
The two considered the first part of that 

witnesses symbolic description pertaining 

to the 1,260 years during which the holy city was 
to be trodden under foot and the two witnesses 
were to prophesy in sackcloth ; and we have shown 
that this description is exactly parallel with the 
prophecy that set forth the period of the papal 
supremacy. But the description continues, cover- 
ing the era of modern sects and leading up to the 
work of a final reformation. 

After describing the 1,260-year prophecy of the 
two witnesses, the narrative continues: "And 
when they shall have finished their testimony, the 
beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall 
make war against them, and shall overcome them, 
and kill them. And their dead bodies shall lie in 
the street of the great city, which spiritually is 
called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was 
crucified. And they of the people and kindreds 
and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies 
three days and an half, and shall not suffer their 
dead bodies to be put in graves. And they that 
dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and 
make merry, and shall send gifts one to another ; 
because these two prophets tormented them that 
dwelt on the earth' ' (Rev. 11: 7-10). 



The Last Reformation 229 

This intricate picture of symbolical imagery is 
placed chronologically just after the 1,260-year 
The witnesses reign of Eomanism and hence it 

^ lB " i was to meet its fulfilment during 

the Protestant era. It describes in the most 
graphic and realistic manner the evil characteris- 
tics and tendencies of the sect-system. I have 
already shown that in the primitive church the 
two witnesses— the Word and the Spirit of God- 
were the real vicars of Christ, giving both char- 
acter and government to the universal church of 
God on earth. We have also seen that with the 
rise of human ecclesiasticism the reign of the 
Word and Spirit ended in so far as the Church of 
Home was concerned. The same is true also of 
Protestantism. The establishment of man-made 
creeds and the concentration and centralization of 
church power and governmental authority in hu- 
man hands— a church-rule patterned after the 
kingdoms of this world— is a rejection of the di- 
vine government of God just as the appointment 
of a king in the Old Testament times was a re- 
jection of God's plan of governing Israel. In this 
sense God's two witnesses have been openly ig- 
nored and rejected in Protestantism as well as in 
Romanism and the ancient churches of the East, 
and man-made creeds and systems of government 
substituted in their stead. They are, therefore, 
represented as slain, although of course a certain 
amount of respect is still shown them in that they 



230 The Church in Prophecy 

are not suffered to be wholly put out of sight. 

"And after three days and an half the spirit 
of life from God entered into them, and they stood 
The witnesses upon their feet; and great fear 

resurrected f e ^ U pon them which saw them. 

And they heard a great voice from heaven saying 
unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended 
up to heaven in a cloud ; and their enemies beheld 
them. And the same hour was there a great earth- 
quake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in 
the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand : 
and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory 
to the God of heaven. The second woe is past ; and, 
behold, the third woe cometh quickly' ' (verses 
11-14). 

The resurrection of the witnesses doubtless 
signifies a time of reformation and implies its true 
character. If the death of the witnesses was the 
result of ecclesiasticism and false teaching, their 
resurrection must signify a final triumph over 
ecclesiasticism and the restoration of primitive 
Christianity under the direct authority and gov- 
ernment of God. Even omitting all details in this 
complex description, we can scarcely avoid the 
conclusion that if the general description given in 
this chapter means anything, it means the restora- 
tion of Christianity before the end of time to the 
condition in which it existed before the apostasy. 

The time prophecy "three days and a half" is 
difficult to explain except in the light of clearly 



The Last Reformation 231 

ascertained historical facts. The term "day" is 
of itself very indefinite, being used in the Scrip- 
The time tures to designate periods of dif- 

prophecy ferent length. In the description 

under consideration it evidently can not signify 
the ordinary 24-hour day nor yet the year-day ; for 
it covers the Protestant period following the 1,260- 
year reign of Romanism and preceding the Last 
Reformation— the same period of time covered by 
the second beast of Revelation 13. 

The events of the Protestant period naturally 
divide it into shorter epochs of about a century 
each in length. The historian D'Aubigne, who 
wrote about 1835, noticed this distinction and re- 
ferred to it in his famous History of the Reforma- 
tion. These are his words: "It has been said 
that the three last centuries, the sixteenth, the sev- 
enteenth, and the eighteenth may be conceived as 
an immense battle of three days 1 duration. We 
willingly adopt this beautiful comparison . . . 
the first day was the battle of God, the second 
the battle of the priest, the third the battle of 
Reason. What will be the fourth? In our opinion 
the confused strife, the deadly contest of all these 
powers together TO END IN THE VICTORY 
OF HIM TO WHOM TRIUMPH BELONGS." 
-Book XI, Chap. 9. 

1 ' Three days and a half, ' ' or three hundred and 
fifty years, after the formation of the first Prot- 
estant creed, in 1530, God began to reveal special 



232 The Church in Prophecy 

light and truth on his Word and to cause a great 
awakening, which is gradually resulting in the re- 
jection of human ecclesiastical rule, the recogni- 
tion of the primitive government of God, and the 
restoration of all the pure truths of the Word of 
God. 

Another point in the prophecy under considera- 
tion assists us in fixing the chronology of the ref- 
ormation predicted. The " great earthquake" 
stands closely associated with the time of the res- 
urrection and exaltation of the witnesses. The 
principles of interpreting symbols would lead us 
to identify this earthquake as a mighty political 
convulsion destructive in its nature, and yet one 
that would be overruled for the furtherance of 
Christ's kingdom— a convulsion that would also 
terminate the destructive reign of the "second 
woe." I can not here digress to give proofs, but 
there is no doubt that the second woe of Revela- 
tion (see chap. 9:13-20) signifies the political 
dominancy of the Ottoman Empire. This power, 
constituting the political backbone of Mohammed- 
anism, has indeed been a most serious woe upon 
the inhabitants of the earth and an obstacle in the 
path of true missionary progress. With these facts 
before us, we can clearly see that the earthquake 
was the great European War and that we are now 
living in the time when a special reformation is 
due. 

Another parallel series of prophecies covering 



The Last Reformation 



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234 The Church in Prophecy 

the same ground and terminating at the same point 
will bring the subject of the Last Reformation to 
Another im- a grand climax. I have shown 

portant series ^hat the religious powers de- 

scribed in Revelation 13 as two beasts were also 
termed Babylon. We shall now give a more par- 
ticular description of this antitype of the Old Tes- 
tament Babylon. The Euphratean city— Babylon 
—the proud metropolis of the Chaldean monarchy, 
combined in itself the corruptions and wickedness 
of the world and then filled up the measure of its 
sins by destroying the temple in Jerusalem and 
leading into captivity the chosen people of God. 
When John wrote, however, this ancient city was 
no more. It had long since been destroyed, and it 
has never been rebuilt to this day. Even the Arab 
refuses to pitch his tent among its lonely, serpent- 
infested ruins. The city to which the apostle al- 
ludes in these prophecies must therefore refer, 
not to ancient Babylon, but to some other anal- 
ogous power which was yet to arise and of which 
the old Babylon was a type. 

A more particular description of the antitypical 
Babylon is given by the Revelator in the seven- 
Great Babylon teenth chapter, as follows : ' ' And 
there came one of the seven angels which had the 
seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, 
Come hither ; I will show unto thee the judgment 
of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters : 
with whom the kings of the earth have committed 



The Last Reformation 235 

fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have 
been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. 
So he carried me away in the spirit into the wil- 
derness: and I saw a woman sit npon a scarlet- 
colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, having 
seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was 
arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked 
with gold and precious stones and pearls, having 
a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and 
filthiness of her fornication: and upon her fore- 
head was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON 
THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS 
AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And 
I saw a woman drunken with the blood of the 
saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus : 
and when I saw her, I wondered with great admira- 
tion' J (verses 1-6). 

The careful student will immediately perceive 
that we have here another representation of the 
same apostate powers already described under 
other symbols. The leading figures— a woman and 
a beast— combine symbols from human life and 
animal life, thus representing clearly the union of 
civil and ecclesiastical power. The combination is 
exactly the same in its essential characteristics as 
that presented by the first beast of Revelation 13. 
And since it is the same seven-headed and ten- 
horned beast, representing the same political 
power, we conclude that the human characteris- 
tics exhibited in this connection symbolize the same 



236 The Church in Prophecy 

religious power— the Church of Eome. In the 
present vision, however, the ecclesiastical phase is 
singled out and particularly distinguished and de- 
scribed, thus placing special emphasis on the papal 
church itself in contradistinction to the temporal 
power of the empire. The political phase of 
Rome's history has already been sufficiently de- 
scribed for our present purpose. We shall, there- 
fore, devote our attention to the ecclesiastical 
phase as developed under this particular symbol 
of the woman. 

The nature of the symbol itself fixes the inter- 
pretation. A woman must of necessity symbolize 
a church, but we must determine by the character 
of the woman whether or not the true church or a 
false church is represented. The woman of the 
vision was splendidly attired and evidently oc- 
cupied a prominent place; for she is represented 
as riding on the beast, the political empire, thus 
directing its course ; and she is also represented as 
sitting upon many waters, interpreted as ' ' peoples, 
and multitudes, and nations, and tongues' ' (verse 
15), denoting her wide influence over distant na- 
tions. She is not simply represented as a prom- 
inent person, however, but as a vile character. She 
is " a great whore, " " with whom the kings of the 
earth have committed fornication." It is clear 
that in Scripture false, idolatrous worship is rep- 
resented as whoredom (see 1 Chron. 5 : 25 ; Ezekiel 
16 and 23). Hence a false church is represented. 



The Last Reformation 237 

There is only one church that can fulfil the de- 
scription, and that is the Church of Eome. Long 
Mother and has she delighted in calling her- 

daughters se if the " mother church," but 

centuries before she made this claim, the pen of 
inspiration affixed to her indelibly the title of 
"mother" -"WOWSER OF HARLOTS AND 
ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTHS She 
bore upon her forehead this inscription, together 
with the title " Mystery, Babylon the Great." Other 
false apostate churches there are, but she heads 
the list and is the mother of them all. No wonder 
the apostle marveled when he saw this professed 
church of Jesus Christ defiled by the most abom- 
inable wickedness, in league with all the evil 
powers of earth, and, above all, ' ' drunken with the 
blood of the saints, and with the blood of the mar- 
tyrs . of Jesus. ' ' That Rome from the date she 
became firmly established in power has ever been 
a constant persecutor of the saints, the pages of 
all history abundantly attest. Even Rome's ec- 
clesiastical writers and historians themselves ad- 
mit her use of force in destroying those whom she 
denominated heretics. 

Revelation 17 covers the same period chronolog- 
ically and ends at the same point of time as did 
chapter 13. Hence we should naturally suppose 
that it would also describe in some manner the 
power symbolized by the two-horned beast —Prot- 
estantism— as well as duplicate the description of 



238 The Church in Prophecy 

the ten-horned beast— Catholicism. That the pa- 
pacy is symbolized in chapter 17 by the corrupt 
whore sitting on the ten-horned beast, is too plain 
to need any particular demonstration. The other 
division of the apostasy is included under the term 
" harlots,' ' the daughters of the "mother' ' church. 
In our interpretation of chapter 14 we showed that 
the angel clearly applied the term Babylon to the 
worshipers of the second beast— Protestantism— 
as well as to those of the first beast. Therefore we 
must regard Babylon as a general term denoting 
the whole city of religious confusion, the mother 
and her harlot daughters being simply specific 
divisions. 

Many commentators, even Protestant commen- 
tators, have been frank enough to admit the real 
Testimony of application and force of these 

commentators symbols of Revelation as apply- 

ing to both Catholicism and Protestantism. Au- 
berlen asserts that " ''harlot' means, in the Old 
and New Testaments, the apostate church of God. ' ' 
—Prophecies of Daniel and the Revelation, p. 278. 
Again, he says, ' ' Not simply Rome, but Christen- 
dom as a whole, even as Israel as a whole, has 
become a harlot. The true believers are hidden 
and dispersed."— Ibid., p. 290. While it may not be 
exactly in accordance with the Scriptures to speak 
of the true church of God as being apostate, yet 
in a sense it is true, for a large part of those who 
originally constituted the church of God actually 



The Last Reformation 239 

did apostatize, until a false church assumed almost 
universal sway and divers forms of error pre- 
vailed, practically eclipsing, for a long period, the 
true church of God on earth. Auberlen stated his 
conclusion in these words: "Notwithstanding the 
universal character of the harlot, it remains true 
that the Roman and Greek churches are in a more 
peculiar sense the harlot than the Evangelical 
Protestant."— P. 294. 

In the well-known Commentary by Jamieson, 
Fausset, and Brown, the Rev. A. R. Fausset, writ- 
ing on Rev. 17 : 2, says of the harlot : "It can not 
be Pagan Rome but Papal Rome, if a particular 
seat of error be meant, but I am inclined to think 
that the judgment (chap. 18: 2) and the spiritual 
fornication (chap. 18: 3), though finding their cul- 
mination in Rome, are not restricted to it, but com- 
prise the whole apostate church— Roman, Greek, 
and even Protestant, so far as it has been seduced 
from its ' first love' to Christ, the heavenly Bride- 
groom, and given its affections to worldly pomps 
and idols. ' ' 

William KJncaid, in Bible Doctrine, p. 249, says : 
"I think Christ has a true church on earth, but 
its members are scattered among the various de- 
nominations, and are more or less under the in- 
fluence of mystery Babylon and her daughters." 

Alexander Campbell said: "The worshiping 
establishments now in operation throughout Chris- 
tendom, increased and cemented by their respec- 



240 The Church in Prophecy 

tive voluminous confessions of faith, and their ec- 
clesiastical constitutions, are not churches of Je- 
sus Christ, but the legitimate daughters of that 
mother of harlots, the Church of Rome." 

Lorenzo Dow says of the Romish Church: "If 
she be the mother, who are the daughters ? It must 
be the corrupt, national, established churches that 
came out of her."— Dow's Life, p. 542. 

Again, Hahn in Auberlen says: "The harlot 
is not Rome alone (though she is preeminently 
so), but every church that has not Christ's mind 
and spirit. False Christendom, divided into very 
many sects, is truly Babylon, i. e., confusion." 

The description of the two forms of the apos- 
tasy, Papal and Protestant, given in the thirteenth 
chapter of Revelation, was conveyed under the 
symbols of two beasts, differing in external ap- 
pearance, but in certain respects similar in char- 
acter. Immediately following that representation 
there is, as we have already shown, a description 
of a distinct reformatory work set forth by the 
144,000 with the Lamb on Mount Zion, the fall of 
Babylon, and the promulgation of the everlasting 
gospel in all the world. The term "Babylon" as 
used in that scripture is applied to both the wor- 
shipers of the beast and the worshipers of the 
image of the beast (made by the second beast) ; 
therefore it embraces both forms of the apos- 
tasy. 

We have just seen that the description of Bab- 



The Last Reformation 241 

ylon, given in Revelation 17 under the symbols of 
a corrupt woman and her harlot daughters, repre- 
sent the papal church and the divisions of Prot- 
estantism. We shall now proceed to show that the 
two lines of prophecy (chaps. 13 and 17) are par- 
allel chronologically, for they both end at the same 
time and in the same manner. 

As the first of these two series of prophecy 
ended with the fall of Babylon and the deliver- 
The last ance therefrom of a people who 

reformation were with the Lamb, not wander- 

ing after the beast, and who had "the Father's 
name written in their foreheads, ' ' not the name or 
the mark of the beast, so also the second series 
ends in the same manner. After describing Bab- 
ylon under its twofold form, mother and daugh- 
ters, the Revelator says: "After these things I 
saw another angel come down from heaven, having 
great power; and the earth was lightened with 
his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong 
voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, 
and is become the habitation of devils, and the 
hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every un- 
clean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk 
of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and 
the kings of the earth have committed fornication 
with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed 
rich through the abundance of her delicacies. And 
I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come 
out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of 



242 The Church in Prophecy 

her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues' ' 
(chap. 18:1-4). 

A movement of mighty power is symbolized in 
these verses. The language is based on the expe- 
rience of the ancient Israelites in literal Babylon, 
who, when the fall of the city occurred, obtained 
release from their enforced captivity, and were 
permitted to return to their own land. The real 
meaning in this case is clear : that apostate Chris- 
tianity has been a veritable Babylon in which the 
true people of God have been held as in captivity, 
and that the time of their deliverance would come, 
when they would, by divine authority, be called 
out. Notice the parallelism in the two descriptions 
of the fall of Babylon. In chapter 14 an angel 
declares "Babylon is fallen, is fallen' ' (verse 8), 
and the next angel with a loud voice warns that 
those who "worship the beast and his image . . . 
shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God" 
(verses 9, 10) ; while in chapter 18 the first angel 
cries "mightily with a strong voice, saying, Bab- 
ylon the great is fallen, is fallen" (verse 2), and 
"another voice from heaven" says, "COME OUT 
OF HER, MY PEOPLE', that ye be not partakers 
of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues" 
(verse 4). 

That this symbolic picture represents a wonder- 
ful religious reformation is almost too clear to 
need proof, for it succeeded chronologically, and 
is placed in direct contrast with, the apostasy; 



The Last Reformation 243 

hence there can be but one logical conclusion, 
namely, that neither Catholicism nor Protestantism 
is the last work and that God has authorized a 
work that shall gather his true people out of the 
entire babel of sect confusion. And that this 
movement is to be effected before the end of time 
is also clearly shown. In the following chapter, 
after describing God's judgment on Babylon, and 
the call of his people out of her, "a voice came 
out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye 
his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and 
great" (verse 5). God's servants are called upon 
to rejoice on account of their deliverance. Those 
who are at heart image-makers and beast-worship- 
ers will oppose this truth, and when they witness 
the departure of the faithful followers of the Lord, 
leaving to Babylon nothing but the godless, grace- 
less professors, they will "weep and mourn over 
her" (chap. 18: 16) and cry, "Alas, alas that great 
city" (verse 16). But the voice of heaven calls 
on the saints for a song of thanksgiving, saying, 
"Bejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apos- 
tles and prophets" (verse 20). Yea, "praise our 
God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both 
small and great" (chap. 19:5). 

Are we to expect such a response? Yes. It is 
true in the prophecy and will therefore be true in 
fact before time ends. "And I heard as it were 
the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of 
many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunder- 



244 The Church in Prophecy 

ings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipo- 
tent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give 
honor to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is 
come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And 
to her was granted that she should be arrayed in 
fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is 
the righteousness of saints" (chap. 19:6-8). 

The scriptures just cited complete another line 
of symbolic truth. The primitive church was rep- 
resented as a pure woman, the bride (chap. 12 : 1). 
During the reign of the papacy a false, immoral 
woman reigned over the kings of the earth, while 
the true woman, or church, was hidden ' in the wil- 
derness ' (chap. 12: 6). Under the reign of Prot- 
estantism her members were scattered in all parts 
of the city of Babylon. But, thank Grod, they are 
to be called out of their scattered condition, and 
as a company are represented in two forms— first, 
as a redeemed host with the Lamb on Mount Zion, 
bearing the Father's name only (chap. 14:1-5), 
and second, as the bride of Christ preparing her- 
self for the soon coming of the Lord. This is proof 
positive that the true church is to be brought out 
and placed on exhibition before the end of time. 

Others of the sacred writers describe this same 
prophetic movement. Zechariah predicts it thus : 
"And it shall come to pass in that day, that the 
light shall not be clear, nor dark: but it shall be 
one day which shall be known to the Lord, not day, 
nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening 



The Last Reformation 245 

time it shall be light'' (Zech. 14:6, 7). These 
verses stand a little clearer in the Septuagint Ver- 
sion: "And it shall come to pass in that day [the 
papal day] that there shall be no light : and there 
shall be for one day [the Protestant day] cold and 
frost : and that day shall be known to the Lord ; it 
shall not be day or night [a mixture of light and 
darkness] : but towards evening it shall be light." 

We have seen that Daniel predicted the long 
reign of darkness and apostasy in the Christian 
dispensation. Desiring to understand the matter, 
he made inquiry, and although the same thoughts 
are beautifully expressed in the Authorized Ver- 
sion, I shall, nevertheless, quote from the Septua- 
gint, which makes the thought still clearer: "When 
will be the end of the wonders which thou hast 
mentioned? And I heard the man clothed in linen 
. . . swear by Him that lives forever, that it 
should be for a time of times and half a time: 
when the dispersion is ended they shall know all 
these things" (Dan. 12:6, 7). 

"A time, and times, and the dividing of time" 
is the same prophetic period of 1,260 years, the 
reign of the papacy. This was to be followed by 
a period of i i dispersion, ' ' and such Protestantism 
has been, for the people of Grod have been scat- 
tered in hundreds of bodies. But this dispersion 
was to be "ended" some time, and then the people 
of God would "know all these things." "And I 
heard, but I understood not : and said I, Lord, 



246 The Church in Prophecy 

what will be the end of these things? And he said, 
Go, Daniel: for the words are closed and sealed 
up to the time of the end" (verse 9) . At the "time 
of the end" the dispersal of God's saints was to 
cease. This predicts the evening-time reforma- 
tion, and the nature of its work is shown in the 
following verse : "Many must be CHOSEN OUT, 
and thoroughly whitened, and tried with fire, and 
sanctified" (verse 10). 

The same spiritual movement is also predicted 
by Eizekiel. In chapter 34 he describes the people 
of God as sheep (see verse 31). These sheep are 
represented as abused, oppressed, and scattered 
by false shepherds. Their gathering in this Last 
Reformation is predicted in verses 11 and 12: 
"For thus saith the Lord God; Behold I, even I, 
will both search my sheep, and seek them out. As 
a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he 
is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I 
seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all 
places where they have been scattered in the cloudy 
and dark day." 

Reader, this is the work of reformation that God 
is now accomplishing in the world. Babylon is 
spiritually fallen, and God is calling his people 
out. In the well-known Jamieson, Fausset, and 
Brown Commentary, Rev. A. R. Fausset, comment- 
ing on Rev. 18 : 4, has well said : ' l Even in the 
Romish Church, God has a people ; but they are in 
great danger; their only safety is in coming out 



The Last Reformation 247 

of her at once. So also in every apostate or world- 
conforming church, there are some of God's vis- 
ible and true church, who, if they would be safe, 
must come out." 

When literal Babylon was overthrown, the Jews 
escaped to their own land. Likewise God's people 
in spiritual Babylon are commanded to come out, 
and with songs of rejoicing they are to make their 
way to Mount Zion, and then lend all their efforts 
to the one work of restoring primitive truth, thus 
making Jerusalem "the joy of the whole earth." 
Like the Jews of old, "the ransomed of the Lord 
shall return and COME TO ZION with songs and 
everlasting joy upon their heads : they shall obtain 
joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall 
flee away" (Isa. 35:10). 

The Psalmist informs us that in Babylon the 
Jews hung their harps on the willows and wept 
when they remembered Zion. When their captors 
demanded of them the songs of Zion, they an- 
swered despairingly, "How shall we sing the 
Lord's song in a strange land?" (Psa. 137:1-4). 
Zion's songs were songs of deliverance; hence the 
Jews could not sing them in captivity. So also has 
it been in spiritual Babylon. But when the ran- 
somed of the Lord "return and come to Zion," 
"songs and everlasting joy" break forth again. 

The Revelator describes this glorious result 
after the period of the apostasy in these words: 
"And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with 



248 The Church in Prophecy 

fire : and them that had gotten the victory over the 
beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and 
over the number of his name, stand on the sea of 
glass, having the harps of God. And they sing the 
song of Moses [a song of deliverance] the servant 
of God, and the song of the Lamb [a song of re- 
demption] " (Rev. 15: 2, 3). Those who have re- 
turned from Babylon have heavenly harps and 
can sing the songs of Zion. Praise God ! 

"From Babel confusion most gladly I fled, 
And came to the heights of fair Zion instead; 
I'm feasting this moment on heavenly bread; 
I'll never go back, I'll never go back. 

"The beast and his image, his mark, and his name, 
My love or allegiance no longer can claim, 
Though men may exalt them to honor and fame; 
I'll never go back again." 

The prophecies already cited make clear a 
mighty religious movement before the end of time, 
a movement designed to triumph over the apos- 
tasy. Since the apostasy was twofold in its nature, 
comprehending a corruption of evangelical faith 
and the development of ecclesiasticism, it is evi- 
dent that the Last Reformation must both restore 
primitive truth and eliminate ecclesiasticism, thus 
bringing back to the world the original conception 
of the church as embracing the whole divine family 
under the direct moral and spiritual dominion of 
Christ. It is also evident from the prophecies 



The Last Reformation 249 

that this is to be accomplished by literally for- 
saking the systems of man-rule just as ancient 
Israel was restored after the captivity by God's 
people leaving Babylon and coming home to Zion. 

Zion represents the church in its primitive, uni- 
fied condition under the government and law of 
Christ alone. Babylon represents a foreign rule 
and another law. The two systems are funda- 
mentally different. This difference was true in 
the type and must therefore be true in the anti- 
type. In the old days of Israel's glory foreigners 
visited Jerusalem, but their presence in the city 
of God did not make them Israelites. And at one 
time the people of God were carried into captivity 
in Babylon, but their presence in that foreign, 
heathen city did not make them Babylonians. 

This distinction is also clear in the anti typical 
relation. We do not have to go to prophetic sym- 
bols to find in the New Testament clear predictions 
of the rise of a false Christianity in opposition to 
the true. They stand out in marked contrast in 
the prophecy. On the one side there is a false re- 
ligious system described as a beast power reign- 
ing. On the other side is placed in contrast a com- 
pany that have gotten the victory over the beast 
and over his image and over his mark, and they 
stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. 
The mother of harlots appears, but in contrast 
therewith is seen a pure woman, the bride of 
Christ. In contrast with Babylon we have Zion. 



250 The Church in Prophecy 

The sect system, wherein ecclesiasticism reigns 
and where the full truth in all its purity can not 
be taught and practised, does not represent the 
true church, but Babylon. The system is foreign. 
It contains, however, many who are not Babylon- 
ians but children of the divine family— Israelites 
indeed. The awful judgments of God pronounced 
against Babylon are directed against the false sys- 
tem itself and the real beast-worshipers it con- 
tains, not against the true people of God, who love 
their Lord and are willing to walk in the light of 
his Word as fast as they are able to understand it. 
When we consider that this sect system has been 
the means of deceiving millions— millions who will 
come up in that last day and plead their religious 
profession, only to hear the awful words, "De- 
part from me, I never knew you"— when we con- 
sider, I say, these evil results, we can not but re- 
peat the words of the prophecy concerning the 
overthrow of Babylon, "True and righteous are 
His judgments." The commandment of God is, 
"Come out of her, MY PEOPLE, that ye be not 
partakers of her sins, and THAT YE RECEIVE 
NOT OF HER PLAGUES." 

The movement to ignore sect lines and bring 
the true people of God into unity is not based 
upon a mere interpretation of prophecy, however. 
The necessity of such a work is being felt by the 
true people of God everywhere, even those who 
make no particular claims to knowledge of pro- 



The Last Reformation 251 

phetic interpretation. Knowledge that the ec- 
clesiastical systems of the present day do not rep- 
resent the real church outlined in the New Testa- 
ment is all that is absolutely necessary in order 
to stir the heart for reformatory action. Depar- 
ture from the truth of God carries with it respon- 
sibility on the part of all those who become awak- 
ened to that departure— responsibility to return to 
the Bible standard. A final reformation there 
must and would be even if it had never been pre- 
dicted by the prophets of old ; for Christ, the great 
ever-living head of the church, would at the proper 
time pour out upon his servants the spirit of judg- 
ment against all unscriptural systems and forms 
of worship and demand the restoration of the pure 
church of the morning time of our era. 

The work of God in the latter days is to be more 
extensive, however, than simply calling God 's peo- 
The future pie together from their scattered 

prospect condition in sect Babylon. There 

are indications in the prophecy already cited that 
the ' ' everlasting gospel" is to be carried to the 
ends of the earth. The movement is to be world- 
wide. In our consideration of parallel prophecies 
in Daniel, we saw that the kingdom is represented 
in two phases— first as a stone, under which symbol 
it broke down the kingdoms of heathen darkness ; 
and then as a mountain, when it is to fill the whole 
earth. And again, after describing the 1,260-year 
reign of the papacy, Daniel said: "But the judg- 



252 The Church in Prophecy 

ment shall sit, and they shall take away his domin- 
ion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end. 
And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness 
of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be 
given to the people of the saints of the most High, 
whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all 
dominions shall serve amd obey HIM" (Dan. 7: 
26, 27). 

There is abundant evidence to be seen by the 
careful observer that there are now at work in 
the Christian world forces that are preparing for 
great changes. Christian charity is refusing to be 
confined by sectarian barriers. The Christian con- 
sciousness is becoming aroused to the evils of sec- 
tarianism and sectarian systems as it has never 
been aroused in any past age. There is a longing 
among spiritual people everywhere to escape from 
the blighting effect of a divided Christianity. 
Evangelism is becoming more and more detached 
from organized denominations, and the denomina- 
tional lines are being ignored in a way that would 
have astonished the people of a century ago. Nu- 
merous attempts are being made to unite the vari- 
ous denominations on the mission fields and in the 
homeland. While many of these efforts are mere 
blind groping for a way out of the fogs of sectar- 
ianism, they show unmistakably that back of and 
underlying all these efforts is a mighty force slow- 
ly but surely gathering power that (so far as God's 
true people are concerned) shall in time rise to 



TJie Last Reformation 253 

break once for all the rigorous reign of human 
ecelesiasticism and reestablish in power and glory 
the simple, primitive theocracy, where Christ shall 
be exalted as the true and only ruler of his people. 

Ecelesiasticism, however, dies hard. In fact, it 
is scarcely correct to say that it will die at all. The 
churches of men are largely made up of worldly- 
minded professors who know not the birth and life 
of the Spirit. To such the church will never ap- 
pear as anything different from an institution or- 
ganized and governed after the pattern of the king- 
doms of this world. According to the prophecy, 
God's true saints will die to ecelesiasticism by for- 
saking the sect system, but the rule of human 
churchly power will go right on until the end of 
time. Furthermore, we may expect the contrast 
and the conflict between these two forces to be- 
come more pronounced as the years go by. While 
the Eevelation represents the call of God's people 
out of Babylon as the movement that again brings 
into prominence the " bride," the true church 
(chap. 19: 1-9), it also reveals the fact that there 
will be another great movement in opposition to 
the truth. 

1 'And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs 
come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of 
the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of 
the false prophet. For they are the spirits of 
devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the 
kings of the earth and of the whole world, to 



254 The Church in Prophecy 

gather them to the battle of that great day of God 
Almighty' ' (chap. 16:13, 14). The nature and 
purpose of this gathering is described in another 
place. " Satan . . . shall go out to deceive the 
nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, 
Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle : 
the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. 
And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and 
compassed the camp of the saints about, and the 
beloved city: and fire came down from God out of 
heaven, and devoured them" (chap. 20:7-9). 

Let this be a solemn warning to all, that God's 
people may discern between the false and the true. 
The movement that brings together in one the real 
saints of the Lord is effected by the Spirit of God, 
while "unclean spirits' ' operating in the apostate 
powers of the ecclesiastical world will effect a 
totally different union. The distinction is clear 
in the prophecy and must therefore become true 
in fact. 

The final reformation is on. "Final," I say, 
because it leaves nothing to be restored as regards 
either doctrine, practise, or spirit. It stands com- 
mitted to the restoration of the whole truth and 
the harmonious unity of all true Christians in one 
Christ-ruled, Spirit-filled body. In short, it stands 
committed to the restoration of apostolic Chris- 
tianity in its entirety— its doctrines, its ordinances, 
its personal regenerating and sanctifying experi- 
ences, its spiritual life, its holiness, its power, its 



The Last Reformation 255 

purity, its gifts of the Spirit, its unity of believers, 
and its fruits. This reformation will continue un- 
til it becomes a great mountain and fills the whole 
earth, until "the kingdom and dominion, and the 
greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, 
shall be given to the people of the saints of the 
Most High/' 

Nor is this picture of events a mere dream of 
fanciful idealists; for it is already true in part, 
and the "more sure word of prophecy" to which 
we have appealed sustains our hope. The actual 
fulfilment of so many predicted events assures us 
that there shall not fail one word of all his good 
promises. Already multiplied thousands of the 
Lord's redeemed people have discerned God's 
plan of effecting unity and have completely ig- 
nored all the lines of sect and human ecclesiasti- 
cism, recognizing as the church nothing else than 
the entire brotherhood in Christ, and recognizing 
as ecclesiastical authority nothing else than that 
moral and spiritual dominion of Christ by which 
alone he governed his people in primitive times. 

This reformation is the movement of God. It 
is not a humanly organized movement depending 
for its success on the ability of men to persuade 
people to leave other churches and join them. God 
himself is breaking down the barriers that divide, 
and in response to his call the redeemed are for- 
saking human sects and creeds, and their hearts 
are flowing together. The center of this movement 



256 The Church in Prophecy 

is not a particular geographical location, nor is its 
nucleus a particular set of fallible men : the center 
and nucleus of this world-wide movement is OUR 
LORD JESUS CHRIST, and its operative force 
is the SPIRIT OF THE LIVING GOD, which 
draws the faithful together in bonds of holy love 
and fellowship. Multitudes already recognize no 
other bonds of union than that moral and spiritual 
affinity which is the common heritage of all the dis- 
ciples of Jesus that know the blessed experience 
of the heavenly birth. Multitudes more are begin- 
ning to see the light of this glorious truth, and in 
due time Christ, the Light, will illuminate the 
hearts of all the saved ones. All hail the day that 
lies just ahead! 

"Back to the one foundation, from sects and creeds made free, 
Come saints of every nation to blessed unity. 
Once more the ancient glory shines as in days of old, 
And tells the wondrous story — one God, one faith, one fold. ' ' 



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